BSG 41
by Code
Summary: The story of the Colonial Fleets resistance.
1. Chapter 1

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

Battlestar Group 41

A long low tone sounded over the speakers in the room, then static. A voice came next. _"Set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill. This is not a drill. Set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill. This is not a drill."_

I stayed sitting at my station inside the Network Administration Office, or NAO. Everyone around me hesitated for a minute until the realization of what was said over the intercom honed in. It was then that their training kicked in. People ran out the forward hatch as it automatically closed and everyone took their stations. There were just four of us in this tiny room at the heart of this ship.

We did a multitude of things in the NAO. Primarily we maintained the on board computer network for our ship, the Craton. This was the most advanced Battle Cruiser in the Colonial Fleet. All her systems were networked. She even had individual sensors embedded throughout her hull and bulkheads that acted just like a central nervous system. All her systems could be automated. The Craton was the first ship in the newly designed _Mars_ class Battle Cruiser.

All systems were commanded by the Combat Information Center, but all the networked automation raised problems. Thats where my team and I come in. We were not officially assigned to the Craton. We were testers. We were here to make sure the Craton's shake down cruise went swiftly and to fix any bugs. Most Battle Cruisers had NAO's, but they were usually managed by one person, who had other duties in the CIC. Primarily this room would be sealed and locked.

But today of all days! Each of us had a multiple monitors in front of us with a multitude of information scrolling over them. We were seeing everything the CIC was seeing. Further more, we had a real time data link with our Battlestar, the Atlantia. So we also saw everything they were seeing in their CIC. We were nothing more than office nerds. We worked behind desks on Space Stations or Ground Bases. Every so often we would get a Temporary Duty Assignment. At the time, I was happy to get the Craton as a TDY. BSG 41 was going to take over for BSG 107 and patrol the Armistice Line. We weren't even out of orbit of Virgon.

The low tone sounded again over the speakers. We knew what was coming because we already read it on our screens. _"All ships in the Group, this is Admiral Nagala. Moments ago I was contacted by Fleet Admiral Grissom at Picon Fleet Headquarters. The Cylons have launched a surprise, all-out attack of the Colonies. Grissom is sure of Picon's destruction. I have no doubt that Virgon will be next. In the quick conversation, Grissom placed me in Command of the Colonial Fleet. We are going to engage the Cylons and destroy them."_

I put a DRADIS screen on a few side monitors. The information coming in through our screens was disheartening. Caprica, Picon, and Tauron were confirmed destroyed. Battlestar after Battlestar were being destroyed. The smaller escorts, like _us_, were being obliterated left and right. Our Group only had six ships, a Battlestar, three Battle Cruisers, a Frigate, and us. Our other ships were undergoing overhauls, or were out patrolling. More importantly our two other Battlestars were hours away. I saw on my screen Admiral Nagala ordered BSG 107 to join us. They were over eight hours away. That would mean all our support would have to make a FTL jump inside the system to get here in a reasonable amount of time!

The low tone sounded again over the speakers. Then the static. _"This is Commander Sheraton. We all heard the Admiral. For those of you who had families and loved ones on Caprica, Picon, and Tauron, I am sorry. It is up to you to make this fight in their name. For all the rest, know this: we fight for them all. This is the most advanced ship in the fleet. We will prevail!"_

Our room was quiet because of all the insulation around us. This was the one point in the ship where all the systems were connected to the Central Command Computer, or See Three. It was from the C³ that connected the CIC, one deck directly above us, to the rest of the ship. Because of the importance of this room, it was well protected from just about everything. The only way to get to the ladder that connected this deck to the rest of the ship, was through a hatch on the far side of the CIC.

In the room was me. My name is Ryan Cody. I joined up as a crewman to work on Vipers when I was 17. In my first year, I joined the _Step Up_ program. The Fleet sent me to college full time in return I would give ten years to them as an officer when I was done. I got my commission and went to Pilot Training School on Caprica to fly Vipers. It was there I discovered how much I did not like flying. I graduated, got my Viper Wings, then immediately opted for a slot teaching at the school. The assignment was three years and I got it. When it was done, I had impressed enough people to cross train into something I liked a little less, Computer Networking.

I transferred to Colonial Logistic Command and got to live in Caprica City for a few years working in the Colonial Defense Mainframe. After that assignment for two years, I transferred to Colonial Research and Design Command and moved to Virgon Fleet Construction Yards. I have been here ever since helping to design networked systems for the Fleet. For my hard work I have been stepped promoted to Captain above my peers.

Next to me was David Slaton. He was a good kid. He was only twenty nine and already a Chief Petty Officer. I think he was from Virgon. Then there was Michelle Conrad. The down to my up. She was one of the officers I got stepped up on. She was a little bitter towards me because of it. I tried to explain it was because of the wings on my uniform, but she thought it was because I kiss ass. Finally, there was Shelly Godfrey. A beautiful blond civilian. I didn't know much about her. My fourth had went AWOL and she was assigned by the Command to fill in.

That was us. Now here we were, testers, about to go into battle. I admitted to myself, I just didn't feel the scope at which this was happening.

Fifteen minutes went by, and we got our first DRADIS contact just off our port. The ship went into an up roar. Commands scrolled across my screen showing the Main Batteries and Point Defense Cannons locking onto the two blips that just appeared. On another screen I saw the commands of the maneuvering thrusters turning the ship, pointing our bow at the intruder. Then back to the center screen, the main missile doors opening at the upper bow of the Craton. The red blips on the DRADIS flickered blue as the Battlestar Night Flight's transponder broad casted along with the Battlestar Valkyrie. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But that breath was short.

A blip appeared right behind the two Battlestars. Viper patrols immediately reported in, it was a Cylon Basestar. Then another one appeared, and another. Simultaneously, a squadron of Cylon Raiders appeared right in the middle of our Group. Then, I thought the Atlantia had been destroyed because we stopped receiving their data link, but that didn't make any since because then the Battle Cruisers stopped their data links. Thats when I saw it. The Command Navigation Program was issuing commands to the rest of the systems.

"What the frak! Michelle, pull the NAVCOM link!" As she got up to yank the huge cable from the C³, Shelly stood, reached out, and snapped her neck. Then, just as quickly, she punched David right in the temple knocking him out. I didn't know what to do as she stared at me at what felt like an eternity but must have been less than a second. As the Craton's systems shut off, a jolt rocked the ship violently. It pushed me from my chair and flung my body across the room, landing on the battery supply cable, knocking it loose from the C³. I was hurt, I was sure my arm was broken. I turned to see Shelly getting up, she wasn't injured. She lunged for me. I did the only thing I knew how. I grabbed the battery power cable, and jabbed Shelly with it, shocking her with a deadly dose of electricity.

The batteries behind the bulk head shorted out and a fire started. The emergency lights came on. All power was off line. The only thing operational was the NAVCOM. It didn't take a genius to know what happened. I pulled the NAVCOM from the C³, tied the battery cable into the computer, reset the breakers and rebooted. Another jolt blasted the ship. This one was too violent. Something was destroyed, and no doubt we had hull breaches. I hit my head, bad. I knew I couldn't reboot all the systems in time. We needed to defend our selfs, but we also needed life support to live. Frak, it hit me. We needed to get out of there.

I brought on line the FTL Computer and prayed it still had a charge. If it didn't have a charge, we were fraked because I couldn't go all the way to the engine room to re-initialize the core. The one screen in front of me scrolled information as I hacked work around's to the system to allow me to subvert the CIC, power, and half a dozen other safety protocols. I checked my watch. Since the appearance of the Basestar to now was only three minutes. I looked back at the monitor. The FTL had a residual charge, but it was fading fast. The jump would not take us far. But where to go? I typed in a bunch of random numbers and hit execute.


	2. Chapter 2

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

Battlestar Group 41

We jumped. I threw up. I have been in FTL jumps only a handful of times. They always make me nauseated. I looked around the room. I knew Michelle was dead. I crawled through the rubble in the tiny room to David. He was laying on his back next to the fire that was behind the bulkhead. As I crawled, sparks, ash, and smoke hit me and my lungs. The emergency lights were flickering. All I had were assumptions, and I assumed we would either decompress and die of asphyxiation, or die of smoke inhalation. I laughed in my head; either choke or suffocate? When I got to David, I could tell he was hurt pretty bad. While alive, he wouldn't move.

The ship vibrated and the sound of her keel buckling echoed. Thats when I got scared. I didn't want to die here. I made my way to my station. It took a good fifteen seconds of conscious thought to decide the appropriate sequence to restart the ship. She was banged to high heavens, but when us Colonials build a ship, we make them to last! First, I needed to put out the fires. Every room had an automated fire system. If that didn't work, we had fire response teams on board. I was located in a secure room, disconnected from all but one deck. I had to put the fire out. I looked around and saw it. Grabbing the fire extinguisher, I crawled back through the rubble, to the battery compartment behind the bulkhead and fired!

Now the fire was out, I needed to breath. I was choking. I looked across the path I just came back to the wall shelf that housed the extinguisher I just picked up. It had a Smoke Mask and Goggles. Back to my station. I donned the Mask and Goggles, and started the oxygen from the yellow hand held bottle. Luckily I was next to my station. I looked at all the connections to the C³, and attached the loose or disconnected ones, minus the CNP. Then I began what we call a _Cold Start. _I had to reboot each individual system by myself. This was going to take some time. Frak! It was going to take power.

I booted the Engine Systems, Power Allocation Computer, and FTL Computer (again). I saw the LED bar on the battery bulkhead. I was running out of battery power to boot the ship. I needed to transfer the computer to main power soon, or this would take even longer. All three computer boot screens scrolled over the remaining monitors at my station that were not broke. While that was happening, I made my way, one by one, to the other stations, booting up every system I could. When I made it back to my station, I saw the Engine Systems status screen. The core was on line! To this day, I don't know why, but after everything, thats what made me break down and cry.

I had to wait a few moments as all the other systems came on line. I brought up the Network Connection Status display. Slowly but surely, each system switched from 'OFFLINE' to 'READY'. All I had to do was connect them to the C³ in the appropriate sequence. Engine Systems was first, followed by Power Allocation. The lights turned on. As I kept connecting systems, various other things would turn on. Until finally, I had the computer up and running again. I heard the sound of the engines kicking on, along with the Fire Automation System. Smoke began pumping out of the room. I smiled and cried (again).

I saw a red status indication on the neighboring display. It was a readout of the ship. The Craton had violent decompressions all the way up to E section. That was over half the fraking ship! The automated systems just secured those sections and the decompressions stopped. But all those people? If I had to guess, a nuke hit us in the bow because the Internal Integrity Grid was showing red all over that section. What to do now? I needed to held David. I picked him up in a Fireman Carry position and hauled him outside the room. Surprisingly the hallway outside was clean and calm. I laid him down, threw off the smoke ensemble, then proceeded to the CIC.

The one ladder at the end of the hall lead right into the far side of the CIC. I reached out to climb when I got the sting of my life. I forgot my arm was broken, well that made me remember. Using one hand, I sort of jumped my way up the ladder. The hatch was closed that opened to the CIC. Not able to use one arm, and holding on to the ladder with the other, I used my nose to punch the code on the neighboring keypad to open the hatch. It worked. The hatch slid open and I crawled up and into the battered Command Information Center.

The handful of people left alive had already suppressed the fires. I saw they had already checked the injured and dead, and now they were in panic. Through all this destruction, I made an interesting note, the CIC looked like it was in pretty good shape. Sure glass was broken and monitors busted, but everything was working. I walked into the middle of the trapezoidal room when I noticed Commander Sheraton laying on her back struggling to breath. On my approach to her, I saw most of the senior officers were dead, including the XO.

I knelt down next to her. She looked up at me and smiled while trying to breath. "My. . . neck is broke. My offic. . . ers are dead. Who are you?"

I held my broke arm as I looked at her. "Ryan Cody. I'm part of the test crew for the shake down. I was down in the NAO."

"Why. . . did everything go off. . . line?" she asked with blood coming out of her mouth.

"From what I could tell, they accessed the Command Navigation Program and through that, shutdown our defenses. Sitting in the NAO, I was able to access the FTL system directly and jump us blind."

She smiled at me again through bloody teeth. "Viper wings? You. . . fly boy?"

"Just for a few years not my cup of tea." I smiled back at her and held her hand.

She began to cry. "I am about to die, along with my officers. . . I am giving you. . . field commission. . . as Commander. Take my rank off. . . my collar please. Its yours now."

"Ma'am, I can't-" she cut me off.

"Give them hope. . . fight the Cylons. . . find Water Bay."

With that, she exhaled one last time. I closed her eyes. Frak. More responsibility. Just what I didn't care for. I stood up next to the map table and center DRADIS console. Looking around the room I noticed people crying, panicked and scared. They needed hope. They needed direction. They needed a leader. Sadly, that was not me. I was never one for being a leader. I liked working by myself because _I_ was the only one I could depend on to do it right. As I looked around the room, they looked back at me, the only uniformed officer at the center of the CIC. I looked down at Sheraton then up to everyone else. The room had grown quiet as they all looked, at me!

_Dad walked with me to school. I was ten. I held his hand as we walked on the sidewalk. The roads were busy with early morning traffic. Town houses lined the tree covered streets all the way to school. Other fathers, but mostly mothers, walked with their children also. My book bag was heavy on my back, and I basically ran as I tried to keep up with my fathers stride. He had a slight smile on his face. Everyone was polite to him. It was his uniform that people responded to, at first anyway. Then when he spoke, his voice commanded loyalty. _

_My father was the Chief of Police for the City of Roma, the capitol of the Eastern Continent on Picon. When I was real little, he always worked long hours. We never saw him. Then when my mom died, he had to restructure his schedule. Even as Police Chief, he made time for my brother and I. I always sensed though, he loved me a little more than my adopted brother, Daniel._

_We came to a busy intersection. The cars were stopping and going. Some were turning right on red, which made our crossing a little tricky. Other families were having a hard time getting across at the red light. People would yell profanities non befitting the way they were dressed. However, I saw in my fathers face he was not concerned with that. He stopped dead in his tracks on the crosswalk in the middle of traffic. His grip tightened around my hand. I gazed in his direction. He was staring at a man in a trench coat at the corner in front of us. The man was holding his coat closed and had something in his other hand. The cars honked._

_The man was staring off to the adjacent crosswalk. Looking that way, I saw the Mayor, a man __dad had introduced me to many times, walking my friend Jason to school. Dad put it together before I did. He picked me up and carried me back to the opposite corner, with cars honking and people yelling at him. Then he reached into his pocket and began to dial his phone. He looked me right in the eye, "Stay here!" He took off across the street to the anger of the people in traffic. "JIM!" The Mayor looked towards my father, so did the man. My dad pointed at the man. "Jim, get back!"_

_The man knew he was caught. He opened his coat and stretched his arms. The Mayor saw the man and I saw panic in his eyes as he picked up Jason. Other families stopped and stared in wonder at the situation before them. The man yelled over the traffic stopping, "The people of Sagittaron will not be abused by the Roman capitalist corporations!" My father was at a dead run at the man, along with two more uniformed police officers down the street. The Mayor saw what was in his jacket and ran away with his son in his arms, as did everyone else. _

_The man hit the trigger he was holding. My father jumped sideways behind a truck. The blast was loud. I was crying and holding my head. The explosion had knocked me back against someone's brick house. Dust was everywhere. People were yelling. I couldn't see anything. I heard firetruck sirens in the distance. Other kids were crying also. All the cars on the street were pushed out from the explosion, forming a wall of cars in a circle around the blast. Glass was covering everyone. Someone had fallen on their car horn. I was scared. I prayed to the gods for my father to come get me._

_Thats when the breeze picked up through the intersection. The dust was blown out, and for the first time, I saw the extent of the explosion. The building the man was standing next to was gone. The cars nearest him were over turned. A crater was in the mans place. And in the center of it all, helping people, and directing everyone, was my dad. I immediately stopped crying. All I wanted was for us to go home. I didn't care about anyone but us. But, despite my cries, he stayed. I stayed at the corner and watched him._

_When we got home that night, with all the overwhelming security he had, I asked him why he would do that, risk himself? Why would he stay and help even though there were others that could do it? He admitted to me, he wanted to leave, but thats not what he could do. He said that while he wore the uniform, he was expected to do what he did. "I understood a long time ago, this is what it is to wear the uniform, nothing more, nothing less."_

I didn't want to be the guy in charge, but I understood, at that instant, I had to be. I never understood what my dad meant about wearing the uniform until that moment. I had to be their leader because it was expected of me, nothing more, nothing less.

My brain went back to what it does, it racked and stacked what we needed to do. "Listen up everyone!" I yelled. "I want fire response teams to go deck by deck ensuring the fires are out and hurt people are tend to." Three young officers inside the glass Damage Control booth picked up their wireless headsets and began working. "I need a full systems check of everything, starting with the FTL." Another young man next to the Engineering station picked up the wireless headset and began working. "If you don't have something to fix, I want you helping the wounded. Navigation, come over here please!"

A young Ensign walked over to me. His forehead was bloody, and he was twitching. It was clear to me his twitch in his eyes was from him being scared. I lowered my voice. "The Cylons got in through a back door in the CNP. I can't risk reconnecting the CNP to the C³, nor do I wish to operate the CNP on a non-networked computer. Do we have the old nav program anywhere?" The ensign twitched and stuttered. "What's your name?"

"Tom Stevens sir."

"Well Tom, I am Ryan Cody. I would shake your hand but my arm is broke. Do you understand what I just asked?" Tom nodded. "Do we have the old program?" Tom nodded yes. "Good, get it and upload it to the NAVCOM, _after_ you erased the new CNP, understood?" Tom nodded yes. As he walked away another young kid got my attention. It was then I was sure I had absolutely no idea how to manage a Battle Cruiser.

I walked over to the Damage Control booth and looked at the Craton's status on the Damage Control Computer. The ship was in better shape than I hoped. I thought the forward hull was gone, but it was there, and full of holes. The fires were out and Sickbay had started triage. There were no green sections on the status, everything in the front of the ship was red, and everything else was flashing yellow. I noticed the CO2 recycle system was not functioning, neither was the oxygen generator. I spoke to the team in the booth, "Get a team to check the status of the Recirculation Units. I think we vented too much atmosphere in the attack."

"They already checked sir, thats not the problem," said the young lady with a finger holding the headset to her ear.

"Then tell them to check and see if the Environmental Computer is connected to those Units." I walked back to the center of the CIC. Ensign Steven's was at his station, deleting the CNP. I saw he had a Data Disk, that must have been the old CNP. People were working. They were totally capable to do this themselves, but for some reason they needed leadership. That was what I never understood about people. I walked over to Commander Sheraton and took off her rank. I put it on my collar. People saw, and stared. Her body was getting cold. Then I thought about David laying in the corridor below the CIC. "Get a medical team to the NAO corridor. I have a man down there."


	3. Chapter 3

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

Battlestar Group 41

Those next few hours really tested my abilities to lead, manage, and run a ship. I always made fun of my peers that went to War College then on to other career enhancing programs. I always looked at provisional schools as nothing more than more time doing something I didn't care for. I figured that I didn't get paid more for being a CAG or an XO so I didn't care. I was beginning to understand a lot that day, including how my friends got the positions they did. That day I learned why those schools were important.

A medical team had retrieved David from the NAO corridor and bandaged up everyone in the CIC, including myself. From reports, triage had slowed and higher risk patients were being operated on. The first estimate had around 300 dead, with another 800 missing. It shocked me because the Craton's normal operating crew was around 1500. Aside from the lives lost, the ship herself was hurt. Raptors eyeballing the damage had reported the forward port side of the ship was damaged so severely it would take weeks in dry dock to fix. We didn't have weeks. Furthermore, the damaged communications array was located in that section.

We figured out a lot over those few hours. Ensign Stevens had uploaded the old CNP and plotted our position. I had jumped us over half a light-year from our last position in orbit of Virgon. The computer had calculated we were in the void between our solar system and the outer edge of the Prolmar Sector. We were too far out for a short range broadcast so I ordered a Raptor to make multiple jumps back to the remaining colonies to inform them of the CNP weakness.

I stayed in the CIC and went over all the remaining information we received during the short battle. I pieced together that the Atlantia was hit by two nukes. She survived the first, but the second went right up her starboard flight pod. The resulting explosion's concussive energy is what knocked the Craton the first time. The damage control team reported low level radiation in the bow, so _we_ didn't get hit by a nuke. They did detect hull fragments from another ship, most likely the Atlantia. The evidence led us to believe, after the shock wave from the Atlantia hit us, a big chunk of its flight pod broke off and impacted us. That impact was the second, more powerful, jolt we felt.

With 800 people missing, we assumed that they were in the forward sections that breached and vented atmosphere. Of the 300 dead, most fatalities were head trauma and smoke related. The 400 survivors did all they could to repair our crippled vessel. I intended to fix the ship, and go back for any survivors. The armories were still full and undamaged, but we couldn't get to our most important offensive weapon, the Main Forward Batteries. Through all the automation, we couldn't do anything if the physical connections between the computers and components were broken or severed. And most of our guns were not responding to digital commands. I didn't care to go back for anyone, but it was expected of me so I pressed on.

My brain stacked in order what we needed to do next. With engineering good to go, we had to get in those forward sections. I had teams outside welding holes, and teams inside going compartment by compartment. A repair team would enter a decompressed compartment, weld the fractures (if they could) then do a compression cycle. After they determined enough pressure was being maintained, they moved on to the next section and repeated the process. I was not concerned with slow leaks just as long as the compartment didn't rapidly decompress. The process was slow, but it worked. On the lighter side of things, continual reports were coming in of survivors in sealed compartments.

With repairs well underway, I stole half an hour to myself. I wanted to get cleaned up. I had a bag of clothes and personal items, but they were in a locker in the forward sections. I didn't have any quarters on the Craton because I wasn't assigned to the ship. When I thought that, I looked down at where Sheraton's body was a few hours ago, and I immediately realized I did have quarters, the Commanders Quarters. After secretly referencing a map (I was embarrassed) I gave the CIC to Ensign Stevens and retreated out the sliding glass doors located on the smaller parallel wall in the trapezoidal room. The corridor jigged and jagged left and right. Lights were busted and some were flickering like strobes. I remember being surprised at how empty it was, then I realized there were only about 400 people alive, and everyone was busy repairing the ship.

After stepping through a secure hatch, I saw the Commanders Quarters. The opaque glass double sliding doors were located at the very end of the corridor. When I approached them, I noticed the stenciling on the glass _COMMANDER RONDA SHERATON._ Seeing her name made me gulp. I entered a workaround code in the keypad and the doors slid open for me. Then they slid shut again after I was inside. The room was a mess. Her personal effects were everywhere. The fluorescent lights had busted over the glass table in the middle of the room. I walked further into the quarters, past the guest area, and into her office. Again, things were everywhere. The glass desk was overturned and files were thrown everywhere. The lamp that was on the desk was flickering.

I walked into the small hatch behind the office and found myself in her bedroom. A single bed (well made of course) and a night stand with a lamp and a few controls were in one corner. In the other corner was a wall locker. I saw pictures of her family in frames all over the floor, and I remember refusing to look at them. When I entered the bathroom and hit the light, I was shocked at the man looking back at me. I had blood all over my face. My hair was matted with dry sweat and blood. I had scorch marks around my neck and over my uniform. My uniform sleeve was cut off and I had a Velcro cast on my broken arm. I saw that I had clear streaks down my face where I cried. I realized I looked like everyone else on the ship. I looked like I just survived the end of the world.

_My dad set me up on the counter in the bathroom of our town home. I was so scared that day. While I pouted, I heard him wetting a rag in the sink. Then, using his big burly hands, he lifted my chin and looked down at me. The big man that was my dad always towered over me. "Kiddo, we are alive, and thats what matters." I turned to look into the mirror as he rubbed my face. I was covered in ash and soot. As he wiped away the dirt, I realized the importance of what he said._

I looked into that mirror while I ran the sink over a rag. Just as I began to clean myself up a bit, I said out loud to myself "we are alive, and that is what matters."


	4. Chapter 4

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

Battlestar Group 41

As I washed my face and rinsed out my hair, I looked at the blood going down the sink. It made me think about everyone that was dead. It made me think about Sheraton spitting up blood as she died. It made me think of Shelly Godfrey. Shelly Godfrey. After thinking of every possible reason she would have done what she did, I could only partially believe one: she was psychotic and just snapped. I refused to consider she was working with the Cylons. Too much was already lost for humans to work with the enemy. I wanted to investigate the matter further, but there were other more pressing matters.

I wanted to change into a clean uniform, but I had to wait until repair crews fixed the hull breaches. When I finally returned to the CIC, I was informed that the hull was indeed patched and the ships engineer wanted to do a few hours of stress testing. I gave him an unspecified amount of time, "You have until I jump us back into the fight." With the hull fixed, I shifted the teams to the next most pressing matter, our weapon system. I would not take us anywhere unless we had full control of all the gun and missile batteries. That made my brain think ahead to our ultimate goal: retaliation. I needed to start coming up with a battle plan. No matter how hard I tried, I had the distinct feeling this was where I would get everyone killed.

Another few hours went by. Most of the crew had cleaned up and changed. I finally had a new uniform on, with Commander's insignia. I had tore off the Craton's shoulder patch from one of Sheraton's uniforms in her locker. I wore it on my shoulder (I had the Colonial R&D Command patch). The hull was stressed and given a green light by the chief engineer. He advised we not go into battle though. For a few minutes I entertained the idea of using the structural limitations of the hull as an excuse not to go back. But I knew I couldn't. I had the command of an entire, fully armed and operational Battle Cruiser. I had to go back.

The Raptor team returned and reported that all twelve worlds were destroyed. This news devastated the crews moral. Again, my brain looked for any excuse to not go back. The Raptor also reported that they intercepted plenty of survivors caught on space ships during the attack. Furthermore, and to my relief, the Raptor reported a broadcast on the Emergency Wireless Band. It was encrypted and needed the Craton's scrambler to decode it. Once we placed it into the Communications System, the computer displayed the communication on the screen. _TO: ALL COLONIAL UNITS: FROM COMMANDER BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: MESSAGE READS// COMMANDER WILLIAM ADAMA TAKEN COMMAND OF COLONIAL FLEET. ALL UNITS ORDERED TO RENDEZVOUS AT RAGNAR ANCHORAGE FOR COUNTERATTACK PREPERATIONS//MESSAGE ENDS 1553210012_

That message was the only thing keeping us going. Once I checked the time stamp on the message, I knew I had to get us moving if we were going to get there in time. "Ensign Stevens, plot a jump to the Ragnar Anchorage." I looked at my watch again and thought about the time. "Strike my last." Stevens stopped what he was doing and looked at me. I saw what I looked like reflected in the monitor across the CIC. The light from the information management table was casting a reverse shadow on my facial features. At 72 inches, I looked intimidating, just like my father. "If the time stamp on the scrambler was right, then the Cylon's would have received the message also, and probably had time to decrypt it. Make your jump to just outside DRADIS range of Ragnor." Stevens nodded and continued at his station.

I flipped open a map and scrolled it across the lit table. A young woman handed me a paper. It had 'FINAL COUNT' on the top. There were 729 survivors. 490 fatalities, and 312 missing. The missing probably were caught when the hull decompressed and vented into space. The Craton had lost over half its crew, but we had enough people to operate her to her fullest. The final count paper had more than just lives on it, it had assets, and all of it was good news. The Craton still had all twenty Raptors in its landing bay, with thirty pilots to fly them, and thirty ECO's to operate them. The ship's ten nuclear missiles were intact as well as it's armories. And as the final icing on the cake, we had six Mark VIII test Vipers in the cargo hold. The mark eight's were to be dropped off at Virgon Station L5 for field testing on our way to the Armistice Line. I couldn't help but laugh silently to myself because I designed the computer system the mark eight uses.

Right when I laughed at myself, the commander of the Raptor Squadron walked in wearing his flight suit. He immediately looked at me with contempt. He walked right up to the other side of the table and saluted. "Captain Mike Marks reporting as ordered."

I returned the salute and noticed he immediately checked out my wings. "Thank you for coming Captain."

"You fly _Commander_?" he asked sarcastically.

I could tell he didn't like recognizing my authority. I wondered if I talked about flying if it would win him over? "I was a Viper pilot for a few years. Did most of my time instructing. If I knew now what I knew then, I would of gone Raptor." I winked at him. It worked. I saw a slight smile break on his face. "I am glad all your pilots are okay. Furthermore, you did good work on your recon flight."

"Thank you Commander. How did the Cylon's get the jump on us?"

"They exploited a weakness in the Command Navigation Program. That's why I had all the ECO's retrofit the Raptors with the old program. Captain, I didn't ask you here for a chat." I saw that remark made him angry. "I called you here to order you to appoint a new Squad Commander and put these on." I slid two metal rank insignias across the table. "Your my new XO." I went back to working at the table, but kept an eye on him through my peripheral vision. He picked up the rank and just stood there. I gave him a moment before commenting. "Your out of uniform Colonel. Get changed and carry out my orders. I need you up here. We have a jump coming up and planning to do."

When he left the CIC, I tried to make an effort to figure out everyone's names. There was Petty Officer 2nd class Quinton James at Communications. Chief Petty Officer Dedie Ruben was in charge of the Damage Control team. Petty Officer 1st class Beverly Weston was the Craton's driver at Helm Control. Ensign Rivers Dyson manned Weapons Control in the far corner, and I already knew Ensign Tom Stevens, my Tactical Officer. When I looked at Stevens, he looked back and nodded. I knew it meant the jump calculation was completed, but there was something else in Stevens look. I walked over to his station. "What is it Mr. Stevens?"

He spoke very low to me. I had to lean across the tactical stations back lit table to hear him. "I have plotted the jump, but there is a problem. While it is inside our FTL range, its past the _Yellow Line._"

"Correct me if I am wrong Ensign, but the Yellow Line is anything over eight light years?" I asked him even though I knew the answer. I had still failed to see why it bothered him.

"Sir, this ship was about to begin trial runs. This was to be her shake down. The FTL Drive has never been tested in this ship before. The Yellow Line means something different on a shake down. The Yellow Line is when we jump farther than before, but still within our capability."

I saw his point. I knew the FTL test guys when working at R&D. I was friends with a few of them. I had faith in their designs and construction abilities. "Noted." I walked back to Command and Control at the center of the room. "Mr. James, put me on speakers." My order was received by the communications officer. I saw him nod in my direction. I picked up the corded phone connected to the information management table and spoke in the mouth piece. "Men and women of the Craton, this is Commander Cody. Presently, we know that all twelve colonies have been destroyed. After sending a recon team back into the system, we have learned there are survivors." I spoke and looked around the room. People were looking at me. I saw I had their hopes on my shoulders. I hated the pressure. As I continued to speak, crewmen came in from the outside corridor to watch. I didn't know what to say. I just kept talking.

_"How did you know what to say?" I asked my dad as he kept cleaning the dirt off my face._

_"What do you mean?" he asked as he set the rag down and started the shower._

_"After the explosion. Everyone was scared and running around, but you got up on a car and got everyone to help you search for people until the firemen came. How did you know what to tell them. Everyone was acting crazy!" _

_He laughed and felt the temperature of the water. "I didn't know what to say Ryan. When people are scared, they become chaotic. All they need to remember who they are is a firm, warm, voice that instills hope into their soul." He began to undress me._

_"Dad!" I exclaimed tugging at my shirt. "I'm old enough to do it myself."_

_"Sorry kiddo." He smiled and turned to leave the bathroom. Before he left the room he said, "When you are the guy in charge, people don't care if you don't know what to say. They just want to hear you. Just don't ever let them know that you have no idea what to do, then you lose every string of trust you might of earned from them."_

"Commander Adama has taken personal command of the Colonial Fleet on board the Battlestar Galactica. Our orders are to rendezvous at the Ragnar Anchorage for a Cylon counterattack!" I noticed everyone smiling with revenge. "However, the message was sent some time ago. We will jump far enough from Ragnor to get a fix on the Colonial Fleet before joining them." The XO walked back into the room in his Officers Duty Uniform. "Set Condition One!" I set down the corded phone. The digital alert in the background on the speakers sent a shiver up my spine from the battle the previous night. The double door entry to the CIC slid closed, as did the hatch that lead to the NAO corridor. "XO, jump the ship."

"Aye sir." Colonel Marks walked over to the FTL station next to the NAVCOM terminal. "Mr. Stevens, confirm jump calculations."

"Jump calculations confirmed," Reported Stevens.

Marks typed in his access code. The red jump display turned to green. "On my mark, three, two, one, mark!" He pressed execute on the panel. My stomach felt the ship enter oblivion.


	5. Chapter 5

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

Battlestar Group 41

"SITREP?" I asked Stevens.

He swiveled in his chair, shifting between computer monitors. "We are in a fixed position on the other side of Ragnar's ninth moon, well outside of DRADIS and visual range."

"Well done Ensign. Stand down, and maintain Condition Two." I looked back down at the lighted table. Colonel Marks had already laid out a new map of the region we were occupying. I spoke to Marks in a low tone. "Colonel, I need a Raptor team to sneak in, to this point, under minimal power as to not attract attention." I pointed at a spot on the map. It was a specific position on the planet Ragnar.

"Why that position?" asked Marks.

"The Ragnar Anchorage is located in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant. To get to the station, you have to enter the eye of the massive storm encompassing the planet. It's all in the data disk." I walked over to the lighted blue glass map standing next to Steven's station. Marks followed me, and Stevens stood to our presence. "If Galactica is still here, she is inside the gas giant docked at the station. I want a Raptor to cruise in while powered down to this point." I pointed at the map. "When they get there, they are to do a visual recon, no DRADIS sweeps. If the eye of the storm is clear, they are to power up and jump back. At that time, we will jump in and enter the gas giant and hopefully meet up with the Galactica."

"Why not just jump to the station?" asked Stevens.

"I was wondering that too," responded Marks.

"That was my first thought, but the information on Ragnar shows an EM field strong enough to throw off any DRADIS, weapon targeting, and navigation systems. So an FTL lock is out of the question." I circled the planet on the glass map with my finger to emphasize the EM field. "Now, if the Raptor team cruises in and finds the Cylon's camped out in front of the eye, they are to power up and jump back."

Marks walked off to order the recon team to launch. We waited as the Raptor launched, cruised in, and jumped back. ETA for the Raptor to cruise to the planet would be thirty minutes. We had thirty minutes to wait. Through all that time, I had only one scenario playing out in my head: The Cylon's were camped out waiting for Galactica and we had to jump in and save them. I did not want to be in command.

_I waited. Daniel was supposed to be there to pick me up. He always picked me up after school. He went to the High School just down the street, so I knew it wasn't hard to get here. He got out of school at 2:30pm, and I was done at 3pm, so I knew time wasn't an issue. My brain racked and stacked what the problem could be. In the end, I could only conclude he forgot, again. I had to wait for my dad. I looked at my watch that was too big for my wrist. The time was 3:25pm. My dad got home at 4. He would find out then I wasn't home. He would ask Daniel. If Daniel was there, he would be on his way immediately. Time to transit from my house to here, 15 minutes. So I was looking at a waiting time of 50 minutes. _

_But, if Daniel wasn't there? I had to recalculate how long it would take my dad to find out my brother didn't pick me up. For all my dad knew, I was with Daniel and we went to the arcade. If that were the case, my wait time increased! I decided to walk home myself. _

_I got home okay, but arrived to my dad yelling at Daniel about leaving me. Luckily I intercepted my father as he was rushing out of the house to his car to pick me up. At the time I didn't know why my dad was angry at Daniel, because in the end I was okay. I just remember hearing them yell back and forth that night. "You left your brother!"_

_"He's not even my real brother, I'm adopted remember?"_

_"Daniel, right now is the wrong time to leave your brother alone in public. I have had death threats against us. Did you know that?"_

_"The kid made it home. He doesn't need me to hold his hand."_

_"When your mother and I found you in that escape pod, we stayed with you. No one has abandoned you. So why are you abandoning your brother?" I ended up falling asleep while they fought across the hallway. I awoke the next morning to my dad sitting on my bed. "Hey kiddo. I'm gonna take you to school this morning."_

I finished all possible scenarios in my head. At the time, I could say I was ready for anything, but what I wanted was my dad to come in and take over. "DRADIS contact! It's the Raptor." Reported Stevens.

I responded, "put them on speakers."

"Craton, this is Flash. The Cylon's are right where the Commander thought they would be. Two Basestars are sitting in geosynchronous orbit above the eye of the storm, along with 70 plus Raiders."

I sighed. "Stevens and Dyson, join me in the War Room. Marks, get the Squad Commander and join us also. We don't have a lot of time."

The War Room was just down the corridor from the CIC. I needed a quiet place to lay out my plan. Dyson, Stevens, and I stood around the large back lit table. It didn't take long for Marks to join us with, "Lindsey Cramer!" I smiled and walked up to her. She did the same, and we both shook hands.

"You two know one another?" asked Marks.

"Commander Cody was my instructor in Pilot Training School," she said in her beautiful North Caprican accent.

We all stood around the lighted table. Stevens had taken the liberty of setting down a large grid map of Ragnar and the surrounding space. "Okay everyone. We have to do this fast. If I were a betting man, Galactica will have rearmed at the Anchorage by now and will be executing her escape plan soon. We are going to help her. First, Dyson you are now a Junior Lieutenant. Stevens, you are a Full Lieutenant. Cramer, you're a Captain." I spoke fast. I could see my promotions didn't register with everyone right away.

"Second. Let me apprise you of the special features of the Mars class Battle Cruiser. As net admins, we know more about this ship than you." I walked to the wall adjacent the double sliding glass doors. On it was an interactive wall display of the Craton. I kept speaking fast. "The Mars class was designed to work independently of her Battlestar Group. While the Venus class Battle Cruiser is designed to work in support of a Battlestar, using her Viper Wing as a layer of necessary protection while they engage the Basestars, the Mars class doesn't need the Vipers for Raider protection. Furthermore, the Mars class, in theory, is able to take out at least two Basestars per engagement. You follow?" I looked at everyone trying to assimilate the information I was throwing at them. They knew time was a luxury we didn't have.

I pressed some touch buttons on the wall display. Various points showed up all over the ship. Green dots were for Point Defense Guns that ran along both sides of the Craton, with groups of four on both the dorsal and ventral hulls. Purple dots were for the Main Batteries. Twelve were on the dorsal hull, with another twelve on the ventral hull. Then there were blue dots in the front of ship, located just below the recess made by the joining of the upper and lower hull. These blue dots were the Main Forward Batteries; the Cratons primary offensive weapon. Finally there were red dots located in both sides of the ship, above each of the four Raptor Bay doors. The bay doors were set in the recess created by the upper and lower hulls. Overall, the Mars class Battle Cruiser looked like a miniature Battlestar without the flight pods.

"Alright, we all know what the green, purple, and blue dots are. The red dots are a new system that has been built into the ship and designed to work with DRADIS. It is a Direction Range and Distance Countermeasure System, or just CMS. It jams any DRADIS system, aside from the Craton's." I walked back over to the lighted table and placed the model of the Craton on it, with two model Raptors behind it. "We will jump from this point to here," I moved the ships. "Two flights consisting of nine Raptors each will follow behind us. Each Raptor will be outfitted with both Alpha and Bravo missile packages. Once we jump in, the C³ will take direct navigational control of all the ships, including the Craton." I saw everyone sigh with a look a shock. "Remember, this is what she (the Craton) is designed to do. Once we arrive in formation, the Cylons will get a lock on us, to which the CMS will start doing it's job. With the C³ controlling all navigational variable calculations, it will immediately jump us again around each of our targets." I moved the Raptors around one Basestar, and the Craton around the other.

I saw surprise in Mark's face, and I saw Stevens relieved he wouldn't have to calculate the jumps by hand. "The dependent variable on the jump times are the Raptors. Their FTL's take at least thirty seconds to spool enough to jump again. But I am hoping the C³ will cut the spool time down to the minimal charge necessary to get the Raptors where they need to go. The Craton has four FTL drives instead of the usual two. Furthermore, she has two sets of spiners per FTL, allowing for multiple jumps with less than a second or the time needed for the C³ to calculate a new set of coordinates."

"Once the C³ deploys us to our targets, Raptor team one, or Deacon, and Raptor team two, Sierra, will lock on and launch missile package Alpha. Simultaneously, we (the Craton) will engage weapon's program eleven. Program eleven was designed for a one on one battle with a Basestar (1 on 1=11). Once the C³ detects everyone has fired, it will wait for the Basestar to point all weapons on our ships and for the Raiders to reacquire us. Then it will jump us all to another position it deems is the best position for weapons package Bravo. With the Cylon's heads turned, we will knock them the frak out from the other side." I looked at Cramer, "tell your pilots to remember missile package Bravo are mid-ranged tactical nukes." She nodded. "Once package Bravo is deployed, the C³ will jump the Raptors out to the rendezvous coordinates. The Craton will remain and take out the first Basestar, clean up the second Basestar, if need be, and then finish off the Raiders."

I looked at Dyson. "Lt. Dyson. Tell the Gun Captains that all Main Batteries and Point Defenses will be under computer control. I know it will be uneasy for them to sit at their stations without Viper support, but if all the weapon systems work like they are supposed to, the Point Defense Guns will take out any Raider or missile heading for them." Dyson nodded. "The computer racks and stacks it priorities. It will protect our lives first, then the FTL, the Main Forward Batteries third, and finally its own weapons fourth."

I took in a deep breath. Right then it occurred to me that I hadn't breathed that whole time. I was amazed how fast I spoke. "Okay, now the bad news." Everyone leaned in to listen. "The Cylon's managed to infiltrate our systems through a back door in some new programing. With that being said, and coming from a computer programing background, I am worried that they will try to exploit the C³ while it is connected to Deacon and Sierra. I already have multiple firewalls in place. During the battle, if they begin trying to hack in, we will pull the wireless connection to Deacon and Sierra. If that happens, the Raptor teams are to fire both packages and jump the frak out."

Stevens spoke, "With the wireless connection down, only the Raptors computers are safe. They can still hack into the C³."

I nodded. "That's right Lieutenant. We will stay and use the network as long as we can until the Cylons reach the last firewall. Once that happens, I will shutdown the C³ and we will have to engage the Cylon's using local controls."

"Kicking it old school," said Cramer.

I smiled. "That's right."

_I sat in the room. I was 22 and had just finished Officer Training School, and now I was finally at Pilot Training School. The room was full of other 'nuggets.' We just got our introductory course finished and now the class leader was splitting us into partners. I looked around the room anxious. I was a very thorough person, and hoped my partner would be too. Though, I always wished I could think outside the box like my father. He always taught me to think through every possible choice and decide the right one. Later on in life, he tried to teach me that the obvious choice isn't always the best one. I understood he was trying to train my brain to consider options no one else has, but I just didn't know how. "James and Perkins," said the class leader. He kept picking names out of a hat two at a time. _

_My brother Daniel was great at thinking outside the box. But that line of thinking is what lead to the explosion on the colonial mining settlement Troy. I always wondered if my father knew what Daniel was thinking. "Homer and Winston." I snapped back to the situation at hand. I fumbled through my papers that laid on my lap looking for a class roster. As I flipped, I came across a letter from my father. I had read it hundreds of times and always kept it with me. On the front of the envelope was his hand script that was almost as elegant as it was magical; To My Son the Colonial Officer. "Marcy and Miranda." I looked up as I heard two girls high five. _

_I found the roster and looked at the names. Only two more couples were left. I knew none of the remaining nuggets. I hated meeting people for the first time. It always involved so much mental dynamics that I considered it a waste of time. "Davis and Fuller. So that leaves," I saw her head turn and look at me from the front row. "Cody and Thrace." I sighed. Class was dismissed and I gathered all my papers and books and stacked them in my arms. I wanted to get out of there and go study, but I was held up by my social misgivings. I turned and bumped right into her, causing my papers to go everywhere. I sighed, and she rolled her eyes. I knelt down to pick up everything she made me drop. _

_As I did, she knelt also and talked to me as she handed me some papers. "So I guess us nuggets are stuck with one another. You a bookworm Cody?" I just nodded. I was too occupied looking for my fathers letter. She grabbed it before I could. When she saw that I wanted the letter, she stood. I could tell she was going to hold it for ransom. "Tell you what buddy, I'm not too good at studying so why don't we help each other out. Tonight, you and me at Tommy's Bar down the street. I'll kick your ass in a game of Triad as we watch Pyramid on the big screens and drink a cold one."_

_I reached for the letter but she pulled it closer to herself. "I'm not one for bars."_

_"You better be, because I'm not one for studying." She said in a cocky tone as she held the letter up. "Just a beer then." I could see she knew social dynamics better than I did. I gave in and she returned the letter. Then she put on her aviator glasses and walked out the room. "See you there Cody," she yelled back. "We are gonna be kicking it old school."_

"We will stay until we physically can't stay any longer. In either case, once the Basestar's are history, we will take the Craton into Ragnar and take it from there. Any questions?" I saw everyone understood.

It took little over thirty minutes to carry out all the mission preparations. "SITREP?" I asked out loud.

Stevens answered. "Battle plan has been programed into the C³."

"Deacon and Sierra are reporting ready," informed James.

Stevens responded again, "C³ has wireless connection with Raptors."

Dyson reported in, "Weapons Program 11 is ready."

"James, give me the ship." He nodded at his station and I picked up the corded phone on the table. "All hands, this is Commander Cody. We are going into battle. We are going to kick some Cylon ass! Action Stations, set Condition One." The digital alert sounded and the doors to the CIC slid shut. The ship was ready. I set the phone down. "Colonel?"

He took my question as a command and walked over to the C³ interface computer. "On my mark, three, two, one, mark." He pressed execute on the panel. Instead of using the FTL computer, he engaged the C³ to jump for us. The pit of my stomach dropped. We jumped.


	6. Chapter 6

I tilted my head and stared at the DRADIS screens above the rectangular information management table. We had to wait a moment as DRADIS swept the region. After a breath of anticipation, the DRADIS display came alive with multiple blips scattered around a central large red dot. After another moment, the large red dot flickered to blue as the Galactica's IFF was read. There were three other large blips on the display that stayed red. The computer registered them as 'CYLON BASESTAR OR EQUIVALENT.' Everything on the DRADIS display worried me.

My brain racked and stacked the information being provided to me. I needed to act. This was the one scenario I didn't consider. I was counting on two Basestars, not three. I was counting on the Galactica to either be gone or in the gas giant. Right then I realized that my fear was coming true: my battle experience and management abilities would get everyone killed. I heard Stevens, "Computer has acquired our new positions relative to Basestar 1 and 2 and has begun first computational calculation for jump _one._ Time to maneuver: 16 seconds."

"What do we do Commander? Mission planning was for two base ships, not three," informed Marks. I knew he was right. I refused to get us killed. My brain had to think. My first instinct was to call Galactica. "7 seconds till jump."

"Hold count," I ordered. Stevens, who sat across from his station at the C3 interface, pressed a few commands and I noticed the countdown was held. On one of the displays above the table, the countdown flashed and stayed at 00:07:64. "James, open a channel to the Galactica."

James was busy holding his headset with one hand and attempting to call the Galactica on the other. "Battlestar Galactica, Battlestar Galactica, this is the Colonial Battle Cruiser Craton, come in please."

Just as he transmitted, we all heard the tone of a blip disappearing from the DRADIS screen. I looked up and saw the Galactica was gone. "Report!" I yelled.

Marks was at the tactical station with Stevens (who was running back and forth from the C³ station). "They jumped," reported Marks. "What do you want to do Commander?" I hesitated."Cylon Raiders have acquired us and are moving to intercept," informed Stevens. "Base ships are moving to weapon's range."

"Commander, what do you want us to do?" asked Marks again. "Commander?" I stared at the screens. All I knew how to do was retreat. "RYAN!"

_"Ryan!" yelled Thrace. "What do you want to do?" We were well into our fifth month of Pilot Training. Kara and I got the last two Viper slots. We were assigned to the 9__th__ Viper Training Squadron. We all wore 9VTS patches on our shoulders. We knew everything about the Mark VII, thanks to my study habits. And we were the new hotshots in battle training thanks to Kara's out of the box thinking. At the time, we were in a battle simulation with our instructors. They were flying Vipers painted white. I learned later why they used various paint schemes during training. Our first battle simulation was with white enemy Vipers to help us distinguish them from the background of space. As the weeks went on, they would change to gray and then all black. We had passed our battle training class, and Viper battle maneuver tests, and now we were finally in Battle Simulation One; flying through an asteroid field created by a failed planet at the outer edge of the system. When I thought about it, that was the farthest I had ever been from home._

_I was scared. I had flown the mark seven in atmospheres and finished battle maneuvers in orbit of Picon, but now I was in a small place, with a helmet around my head, rocks the size of __houses zooming by me, and no safe heaven insight. It took Kara yelling at me to get my attention. "What do you want to do? If you want to call it quits let me know now!"_

_I knew this was important to her. All I wanted was to go back to the Triton and get back in my rack. But winning our first Battle Sim was important to her. She needed to win the exercise to maintain her hotshot status. She was a showoff, I wasn't. I asked myself 'what would my father do?' I knew the answer. He would sacrifice himself for the greater good because it was expected of him. "I'm good Kara." I breathed deep. "Let's press on." I began to think logically. It helped me get over my fear. "I studied every Battle Sim One debrief."_

_"I thought those were confidential until you were done with the sim?" interrupted Thrace. She maneuvered alongside me in her Viper so we could see one another. I figured she knew if I saw her face, I would calm down._

_We both dodged an asteroid. "I took a page from your book and hacked in. I've always had a knack for computers."_

_I heard her chuckle, "Good to see I'm making an impression."_

_"The debriefs showed every engagement ending pretty much the same way. One instructor would hide in the thick of the field, while the other one would get our attention. They would lure the students deep into the field until the hidden instructor would get the jump on them. The lesson for the mission was always: Don't fall for the trap."_

_"Did it end any other way?"_

_"The students who didn't fall for the trap didn't win the sim, it just got marked as a: PASS." I looked over and saw her smile. "Let me guess, you want to win?"_

_She laughed. "You bet."_

_"How?"_

_"We spring the trap, but keep our options open." She smiled and began playing with her Viper. We looked for the white enemy ship. DRADIS was useless. Our mission clock only had an hour left._

I walked over to the C3 interface computer and brought up the mission program. "We have the advantage. We engage as planned, minus a slight modification." I typed quickly adding to the mission program. "Mr. James, inform Sierra they have a new target. And tell them CMS will be down until they jump to the rendezvous." He did as ordered. I finished the program and walked back to Command and Control. I looked up at the clock, and couldn't help but notice the red Cylon blips heading towards us. "Steven's resume count."

"Sierra acknowledges change in orders," informed Petty Officer James.

"Count resumed," informed Stevens. The clock jumped from 7 seconds to 4 and counted down.

"Why will the CMS be down?" asked Marks.

Stevens spoke out loud. "Jump in four, three, two, one." My stomach lurched. We disappeared and reappeared. DRADIS swept the region again. A moment of pause passed. The Craton, Deacon, and Sierra, were all adjacent to Basestar's 1, 2, and 3 (respectively). No one had time to react. The jump clock had reset to 21 and was counting down. Simultaneously, we heard and felt the batteries firing. Every time the Main Forward Battery would fire, the ship would momentarily stutter. "We are well away from the Raiders, next to the Basestar. The Point Defense Guns are still standing by for the Cylon's to acquire us."

"I think we just outsmarted a machine," stated Marks looking up at the DRADIS and jump clock.

"Deacon and Sierra report missile package Alpha has fired and all missiles have hit the Basestars," informed James with a smile.

"Cylons Raiders will be on us in fifteen seconds," informed Stevens. That made since because Basestar 1 was closest to all three Raider Wings. Hopefully the Raptors would be okay. I looked over at the Weapon's station and saw the Point Defense Guns had kicked on and were taking out the Raiders and their missiles. "Basestar's have reacquired the Craton, Deacon and Sierra. Jump in five, four, three, two, base ships launching missiles!"

I watched the clock hit zero, and felt my stomach turn upside down. When it stopped, I knew the next jump would bring up my breakfast. I looked up at the clock. My first concern were the Raptors. They were sitting ducks during the operation, and were at the mercy of their FTL's spooling. The Cylon's were surprised by our first jump, but I didn't doubt they would be a little quicker responding to the second jump. The jump clock had a countdown of thirty six seconds. Next I looked at DRADIS. I saw we were on the far side of the base ships. I heard the batteries doing their jobs and saw the guns were beginning to track new Raider targets. I looked over to James.

"Deacon and Sierra report package Bravo is away," reported James. I looked back up at DRADIS and watched the Basestar blips. I held my breath, as did my XO.

"Base ships have reacquired the Craton and Sierra, they are still tracking on Deacon," informed Stevens.

I looked at the weapons display and saw the guns were firing. I looked back at DRADIS and saw the DRADIS sweep had scattered all the blips. I knew it was radiological interference. We all held our breaths again until the radiation dissipated and we could see. The nukes blinded our DRADIS. The jump clock paused at fifteen seconds. That made since because the C³ needed the DRADIS to calculate the Raptor's positions. After a few moments, the sweep acquired all contacts. All three Basestars were still there. Frak!

"Sir, Deacon 1 is reporting the nukes hit the Basestars spires. The base ships are crippled, but not destroyed," informed James.

"Tell Deacon and Sierra to move out of the Cylon's weapon's range. Fly into the eye of the storm if they have too," I ordered. The ship rocked, and sparks flew as an overhead light bulb exploded. I looked at Damage Control and noticed the Chief giving me a thumb up. I could only guess at the time that a missile must have gotten through. I looked up at the clock: 00:08:21.

"Cylon virus detected!" I heard Steven's yell. I looked over to the C³ station and saw the green network status start flashing red. I knew the Cylons were attempting to get past the first firewall. From the look of the status screen they were doing it fast. Too fast! "First firewall cracked, they are working on the second."

I looked up at the count. The seconds seemed like hours. Three. I looked at Damage Control and saw the chief dispatching the repair teams to Sublight Engine Pod Six. Two. I looked at DRADIS and saw the remaining base ships coming towards the Craton. One. I saw two of our Raptors disappear next to several Cylon Raiders. Zero.

"Raptors are away!" informed Marks. "We lost Deacon 3 and 4."

"Stevens, activate CMS. Weapons!" I yelled over the alarm and conversations in the room. "Order all batteries to switch to salvo fire. Target Basestar 1's center axis." I looked over at the network status. The Cylon's were still hacking at the firewall. The Craton jolted as all the batteries fired at once in the same direction. The result surprised me. Basestar 1 disappeared from DRADIS.

"CMS is broadcasting and Basestar 1 has been destroyed." informed Stevens.

Marks noticed the difference before I did. He was staring at DRADIS when he said, "The Raiders, they're confused. Why did you wait to activate it?" I looked at him as he spoke, then back to DRADIS. I saw what he meant. All the Raiders hesitated.

Then I remembered he asked me a question twice. "For the CMS to work, it has to jam all targets, or an enemy can just rely on relay information from the unaffected DRADIS. The third Basestar was too far out to jam. I didn't want to show that card yet." This was when I wished I had been able to program another jump. Instead I said, "helm, turn our bow towards Basestar 2's center axis and move us in at best possible speed. Weapons, readjust automation for new target and fire. Once Main Forwards are locked on, switch all batteries to Salvo." I looked over at the weapons display, the Point Defense Guns were doing a perfect job taking out Raiders and missiles, but they were running hot. I looked back to the network status and saw the Cylons past the second Firewall and working on the third.

"Commander!" I heard Stevens yell as he smiled. "Basestar 3 is pulling out. They are using the second base ship as cover for their retreat."

"Forwards have a firing solution and are engaging," reported Dyson.

We all felt the ship jolt as the batteries fired again in unison. "Lt. Dyson, nuclear launch order. Target the 3rd base ship." I saw Marks head jerk my direction. I looked back at him from across the lighted table. "Trust me Mike." I saw the hesitation in his face.

"Computer has the 3rd Basestar targeted," informed Dyson.

I looked up to the DRADIS display at the sound of a contact disappearing. "Second base ship has been destroyed," informed Stevens. "Cylon Raiders are bugging out with the final Basestar."

I looked at Dyson. "Open launch tube doors! Helm, full steam to the final Basestar. Keep our bow batteries on its center axis." I saw on the weapons display launch tube door one was open and the nuke was extended and ready to fire. I looked at the network status. The third firewall was down and the final firewall was still being hacked. I walked over to the C³ station. I typed in a command then flipped open a panel on the terminal. Inside it was a lighted hashed black and red button titled: I/O.

When I turned back to the DRADIS display, I noticed the Raiders disappearing. "Raiders are jumping out," reported Stevens.

"What about the base ship?" asked Marks.

"They are limping away from Ragnar," informed Stevens.

"They're not jumping?" I asked Stevens.

"No sir."

"We winged them," said Marks as he looked at the DRADIS.

I looked back down to the network status. The Cylon's were still trying to get in. I depressed the I/O and all the lights and computer terminals flashed off momentarily. Once they came back on, I said, "All systems are now under local control." I walked back to Command and Control and began commanding the ship. "Weapon's how long until we are with in battery range?" I waited for an answer. I looked over at Dyson after three seconds went by. He was calculating it. I waited another three seconds. "Lieutenant?"

"Twenty seconds," informed Dyson.

"I don't want to waist a nuke," I said low to Marks.

"I understand, but once they get in weapons range, _we_ will be in their weapons range," said Marks. "Commander," he said low across the table. "Even a wounded animal still has teeth."

We waited for twenty seconds to go by until we could fire. The second we entered weapon's range, the Cylons fired every nuke and missile they had before jumping out. They set a trap for us. I should of listened to Marks. I should have learned from Battle Simulation One.


	7. Chapter 7

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

Battlestar Group 41

The missiles were coming towards us. I was embarrassed and humiliated. I knew better, I knew better! The destruction of the first two base ships lured me into a false since of confidence. I was cocky and that made me stupid.

"Why isn't the CMS scrambling them?" asked Stevens.

I just stared at the DRADIS console. I didn't want to look at anyone. Marks answered Stevens, "Because they're not locked on to our DRADIS signature."

"Then how are they heading towards us?" asked Stevens.

I looked at Stevens irritated. The kid made me angry with his stupid question. More than that, I was angry at my decision and took it out on him, "you don't need DRADIS to point and shoot!"

"Time to impact?" asked Marks out loud.

"10 seconds," responded Dyson.

Marks looked over to Damage Control, "Brace for impact!" The Damage Control team relayed the message through the ships speakers. The digital alert on the speakers changed. Instead of the repeated digital tone, six short rings rang out.

I took hold of the metal bars surrounding the information management table. It was then I accepted my death. I had thought all along I would get this ship and her crew destroyed, and it was about to happen. I was thrown across the CIC.

-

_"Sounds good Kara." Our plan was finished. We searched the asteroid field for the white Viper. It took us twenty minutes to find him. He was out in the open. _

_"His mistake," said Kara. We both took off for him. Kara took the lead. She always took the lead. She was a natural leader. He caught sight of us and punched it for the center of the asteroid field. "Cody, you ready?" I clicked my communication's relay button two times. The resulting static flickered twice. That was my acknowledgment. I cut my engines, activated Split Axis, and initiated a 180 degree vertical flip in just .29 seconds. Once the flip was complete, I initiated reverse thrust and activated the Viper's 'Fly by Command' program, which was called 'going Foxtrot Charlie.' Foxtrot Charlie deactivated Split Axis, and all my Viper's maneuvering commands were controlled by the computer. The computer was taking the maneuvering commands from Kara's Viper through the wireless link our computers had, which resulted in me flying backwards in formation with my wingman. _

_I had only read about this maneuver. When pilots did what I just did, it was usually not inside an asteroid field! Kara assured me it would work, and it did. Once I flipped I saw the other instructor in the distance. "Got'em! He's coming in fast Kara. He will be in range in ten seconds."_

_"Alright Ryan, kick on Split Axis and start pushing away from me." Split Axis allowed me to keep Foxtrot Charlie turned on, but allowed limited control input from my flight controls. Flying backwards at this speed in an asteroid field was too hard for me. Split Axis let the computer fly. However, any inputs I made, it would compensate speed, roll, pitch, and yaw so I wouldn't kill myself. The result allowed me to thrust away from Kara's Viper. I called it 'poor man's flying.' "You ready?"_

_"I'm in position," I replied. _

_"In three, two, one!" We both killed our engines (doing so immediately kicked off all automation). With only our inertia moving us through space, Kara flipped 180 degrees to align herself with my Viper. Simultaneously I rolled over her Viper as she flipped, and came down along her other side. I impressed myself and I was surprised the maneuver worked. We maxed out the throttles, and I was pressed into the seat back. We were pulling so many G's I felt my flight suit kick in. My flight suit legs compressed which helped keep the blood in my upper body. Further, the mark seven's computer noticed the sudden gravitational change was outside of tolerance and activated a gravitational plate embedded behind the forward console. The difference helped me stay conscious but gave me an awful sense of vertigo._

_I used Kara's Viper to remind my brain which way was straight. When I got over my momentary loss of up and down, I heard Kara laughing as she took out the instructor with the training guns. "Frak me, you did it!" I said._

_"You owe me a buck Ryan, it worked."_

_"Yeah, I'll give you a star buck," I said jokingly. _

_She looked over at me in my cockpit with a look of confusion, "Whats a star buck?"_

_I changed my voice into a mock voice a person makes when talking to a child, "Because you're my super star!" She laughed and rolled her eyes. I'm sure she called me an idiot also, but the sound was drowned out by DRADIS picking up the other instructor. "He's coming in behind us."_

_"Let's do the same maneuver, but this time we both flip vertically," she said. I clicked my radio twice. "In three, two, one!" We killed our thrusters. I flipped vertically and rolled over her Viper. She flipped vertically and rolled under mine. As we came up level with one another, we cheered that it worked. In our moment of cheer, my vertigo was back and apparently Kara had it too. We clipped wings before losing control of our Vipers. I began to roll uncontrollably over Kara and out away from her. I heard the warnings from the computer go crazy._

_The instructor's voice came over the radio, "Student 1 and 2 eject!" I tried reaching for my ejection lever. The gravitational forces from the uncontrolled roll were keeping my hand from getting anywhere close to it. As the Viper flipped faster and faster, I lost all sense of direction and began puking in my helmet. Before I blacked out, I saw an asteroid as large as a Battlestar, and it was getting closer._

_-  
_

Everything was a blur and my ears were ringing. In my head I could hear my heart beat and my lungs breath. The world was in slow motion. I saw Marks walking over to me. He was silhouetted by the overhead lights that kept exploding and raining sparks. The only light in the CIC came from red flashers in the ceiling, the very dim emergency lights, the information management table, and the few computer monitors that were still on. People were either unconscious on the floor, or hurt and on the floor. It seemed that Marks was the only one on his feet. From the gimp in his walk, he was hurt. After what seemed like an eternity, he made it over to me. He mouthed something I didn't hear. Dazed and confused, I saw him strain to tell me something. I didn't know why he wasn't speaking until he slapped the frak out of me. "Commander, wake up!"

-

_"Wake up!" yelled Kara as she slapped me. We were in the Search and Rescue Raptor heading towards the Triton. Her face was different. She was embarrassed and humiliated. I could see the sheen on her cheek; she had been crying. I was laying on the Raptors floor. My flight suit's top had been cut off, and two electric paddles were stuck to my chest. I realized right then my heart must have stopped. She embraced me and I laid in her lap, choking out all the puke that had stayed in my mouth. I was in shock. My body was shaking._

_Looking at my feet, I saw my helmet; the inside was coated with a layer of throw up; I must have suffocated on my puke. I looked past my feet and up into the cockpit area and saw the Triton's flight pod through the bubble canopy. We were landing._

_-  
_

_"Your action's resulted in the destruction of two very valuable pieces of machinery," said Commander James Jonasson. We were at attention in the Combat Information Center wearing our Dress Grays. "What do you have to say for yourself?" Commander Jonasson talked softly as he worked at the large information management table. I didn't dare turn my head to look at Kara, I just hoped she didn't do or say anything smart. "Well?" He put down his papers and looked at us. I didn't know what to say, let alone what to think. _

_"We wanted to win, sir," said Kara._

_"Win?" He looked at his XO, Colonel Laura Chin._

_She stared us down. I felt in my heart Colonel Chin was evil. "Win! What the frak do you know about winning Ensign Thrace? That is the first time anyone has destroyed a Viper on the first battle simulation! No one has ever won battle sim one. What was going through your head? You think your smarter than the rest of us?"_

_I heard Kara speak again, I just wanted her to shut up. "Yes, sir."_

_Chin's eyes lit up. I saw fire in her face. "YES! Thrace, I swear to the Gods. . ."_

_"Colonel," Jonasson said softly. His interruption made Chin go quiet. Everyone in the CIC was watching. "Ensign Kara Thrace, Ensign Ryan Cody, you destroyed two mark seven Colonial Vipers by performing stunt maneuvers for no applicable reason what so ever. You did it to show off and look good. And, your instructor's said that was the first time they had ever been surprised by a nugget." I couldn't see her, but I felt Kara smile. Then I realized I was smiling also. "That was the first time anyone has ever shot down their instructor in their first sim."_

_Chin looked flustered, "Commander?"_

_Jonasson looked over to Chin with a harsh look, which once again shut her up. "Ensign Thrace, you also saved the life of your wingman by initiating a remote eject." I didn't know that. At the time, I had still not read the After Action Report or the Safety Report. "And then you didn't give up on him after eight minutes of CPR and defibrillator shocks."_

_"Thank you, sir," said Kara._

_"Unfortunately, original thinking and good leadership doesn't replace two expensive pieces of hardware," said Jonasson. "As Flight Leader, you are responsible for the consequences of yourself and those under you. You will be court-martialled for your actions. Dismissed." We both saluted. Jonasson returned the salute and we left the CIC._

_Once in the corridor outside the CIC, I stopped Kara. I hadn't seen her face the whole time. When she turned and looked at me, she wasn't smiling like I had thought she would be. Her face was flush and her eyes watering. "Kara?" She wouldn't look at me. I saw a side to her at that moment I had never seen. She was embarrassed and humiliated._

_"I'm sorry," she said before she started to lose it. She began to cry. I walked her into another corridor, away from the personnel traffic. We stopped in a corner and I hugged her. "I'm so sorry. I got you killed. You were dead."_

_"But you also saved me," I held her head in my hands as only a friend could. I let he cry for a few moments before I threw some mental cold water on her. "Kara, you fraked up. We fraked up. It's done, its over! You will be court-martialled for it. Until then, last I checked, you are still a pilot. So suck it up and get over it. We are due in the Squadron Ready Room in ten minutes."_

_-  
_

"I'm up! I'm up!" I got to my feet. I sucked up my humiliation and got to work. I felt something warm flowing out of my head. I realized my head was bleeding again. I applied pressure to my forehead when I felt my broken arm; the velcro cast had fallen off. I walked over to Command and Control. "SITREP!"

Marks was helping Stevens to his feet, and I had turned to check on James. I heard Chief Ruben speak from Damage Control, "A tactical nuke hit our dorsal bow. Concussive shock waves from four other nukes have broken electrical and fuel lines down both sides of the ship. Main structural beams are intact. Fire control, emergency response, and damage repair teams are already responding."

Stevens had checked his computer, "DRADIS and NAVCOM are down. FTL computer is online."

Marks was over at the engineering station, "FTL drives one, two, and four are down. Drive three is online and its twin spinner still has a residual charge. It's fading fast though."

I looked over to James. He was hurt bad, but he was at his station and had his headset on. "Commander, I am picking up a transmission on the Emergency Wireless Band." Marks, Stevens, and I turned and looked at James. "It's an Auto Distress Beacon."

"Their are pilots still alive out there," said Marks.

I looked at Marks. "They must have ejected from their Vipers during Galactica's escape." I saw him nod in agreement. We had two Raptors left. "Launch SAR 1. Have those pilots recovered." Marks picked up a corded phone from the information management table. I couldn't help but think about Deacon and Sierra waiting at the rendezvous. "Launch SAR 2. Have them jump to the rendezvous and inform our Raptors of the situation." Instead of putting down the phone, Marks just rested it on his shoulder as I spoke. "Let them know we are on our way." Marks put the phone back to his ear to relay the order.

Dyson walked over to the lighted table and set down a readout of the Craton's weapons. He spoke, "Point Defense Guns took out all the missiles and a few nukes. When the tactical nuke hit, its shock wave detonated the remaining four. Those nukes were still a thousand feet away but close enough for us to feel the repercussions from them." Dyson laid down a schematic of the ship from overhead. "Main Forward Batteries are offline. All Batteries forward of this section," he pointed at the schematic, "are offline."

"Commander!" yelled Ruben from Damage Control. Marks and I looked over at the Chief. "Repair teams report decompressions in the forward hull. They say the spots we patched have reopened."

The ship was hurt. The Craton needed a good 48 hours of repair. But I had a mission myself I needed to complete and I wasn't going to risk anyone else. One of my stupid mistakes already had repercussions, and my next decision was going to be a huge mistake. As I stood in the battered CIC, deep in thought, Marks got my attention. "Colonel Marks. You are ordered to take command of the Craton and jump to the rendezvous."

Everyone in the CIC looked over at me. Marks looked shocked, "Why? Where are you going to go?"

"I'm going to take one of the mark eights from the cargo hold, and go to the Ragnar Anchorage."

"Why?" asked Marks again.

I sighed. "One of the things my father told me when he was a police chief, is that when you're in charge you don't have to answer why." I gave him a half smile, "but I'll tell you anyway. Right now the Cylon's are relaying our position to every ship in the area and will be on us anytime. The Craton is bruised and in no condition to fight. I have to see if Galactica left any message as to where they are going, or any standing order they have."

"Sir," said Marks. "If we take the Craton to the Anchorage, we can resupply."

"No," I responded. "The Galactica would have taken everything. It's what I would have done."

Stevens spoke up, "NAVCOM and DRADIS are back. We are in an uncontrolled vertical spin. I have SAR 1 on my scope, along with three ejection signals."

I looked back at Marks. "Wait for me at the rendezvous for five hours. At five hours and one minute, you are to jump to a new location. If you can, try to find a weapon's depot and give the Cylon's hell."

"And just how are you planning on jumping to meet us?" asked Marks.

"The mark eight is full of new surprises." I rolled my eyes, "and I _can't _wait to see if they work." I sighed at the remark. I scribbled down three words on a piece of paper, folded it and slid it across the table to Marks. "Open this when you jump. It's the last thing Sheraton said to me. You have your orders Colonel." He pocketed the note. I turned to leave the CIC when Marks got my attention. He was saluting me. I returned the salute and left.


	8. Chapter 8

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

BSG 41

I found a spare flight suit in the Pilot's locker room. After acquiring a helmet, gloves, boots and metal pressure collars, I made my way to the cargo hold. The elevators were offline, so I climbed down ladders and went through causeways. After eight minutes of crawling through the massive ship, I approached the inner pressure hatch to Cargo Hold One. Outside the hatch, waiting for me, was Captain Lindsey Cramer. She was in her flight suit and was waiting for me. She saluted as I walked up to her. I smiled and returned the salute. "I take it Marks talked you into coming with me?"

"He didn't have to talk me into it, sir."

I turned the lock on the hatch and swung the door open. "Don't you have a squadron to run?"

"Not much of anything to run when all my Raptors are gone."

"You remember how to fly a Viper?"

She walked through the doors into the hold. "Yes." She turned to look at me as she put on her gloves and sealed them with the collars, "Do you?"

I laughed under my breath and followed. The six Vipers were sitting in a row, pointed at the large cargo door on the port side of the Craton. As I walked into the massive hold, I saw a deck gang fueling the Vipers, checking them for problems, and loading them with ammunition and missiles. Inside one of the Vipers, I saw David Slaton. As I walked up to him, I heard Cramer remark, "With the squadron gone, the knuckledraggers have nothing to work on."

When I approached the Viper, Chief Slaton had climbed out and was saluting. I saw a bandage around his head. I returned the salute. "How you feeling Chief?" I asked.

He placed a hand on his temple. "That bitch got me good."

"You helping out the Deckhands?" asked Cramer.

"No ma'am," he said holding up a tablet computer with a schematic. "I was patching the software on the mark eights." He walked around Cramer, and stood next to me. He showed me the tablet. "The mark eights are too advanced to work with the old CNP, and you and I are going to need months to study the new one to find out which back doors the Cylon's came through, so trying to patch it is too risky. So I did my best to modify the old one to work with the Viper."

Lindsey walked next to me to see what I was looking at. I knew she wouldn't understand the scrolling numbers across the tablet. "Can't we localize the avionic packages?" she asked.

David and I both looked at Cramer at the same time. The fluid movement of both our heads turning in her direction shocked her a bit. "No ma'am. The Vipers are too reliant on the computer's being networked together. I've only had twenty minutes to work on this, so no promises." David looked at me. "I uploaded the source code of the old CNP to a hard drive in your Viper sir, so if you encounter any problems you can be able to rewrite what you need to fix it."

"Thanks Chief," I shook his hand. Then Cramer shook his hand. He wished us luck and walked off. I did a quick visual check then we both climbed up the ladders on either side of the two Vipers. Once in the cockpit, a young petty officer climbed up the ladder and handed me a checklist. I strapped it to my knee board. Then he handed me a clip board. It was the Vipers Maintenance Release Report. I signed the bottom and handed it back. Then the petty officer helped me don my helmet and connect my flight suit to the ejection seat. I gave a thumbs up, and slid the canopy back and locked it. I ran through my preflight checklist: Power On check was good. I looked outside the Viper and saw the deck gang had removed the fuel lines, and had pulled back all their equipment.

The Deck Chief gave us both a thumbs up, which we returned, then he saluted, which we both returned. Then he ran out of the room with his gang, and sealed the hatch. The next thing I knew, the massive cargo doors were retracting into the deck and ceiling. I clicked on my radio, "Flash, this is Roller, inter plane radio check. How do you hear?"

"Lima Charlie. How me?" responded Lindsey.

"Loud and clear." I switched to exterior radio. "Craton, this is Viper Flight. Request permission to launch."

I heard James over the radio, "Viper Flight, you are clear, good luck Flash and Roller."

I ran through my Engine On checklist. The three thrusters fired to life. "Alright Flash, the mark eight may look like a mark seven, but there are a few differences I will brief on the way to the Anchorage. Right now, just know they have quicker input to response times by about .04. And the thrusters are 10% more efficient and provide over 20% more power at full throttle."

"Roger that Roller."

I hit the vertical RCS and the Viper floated up in the cargo hold. I looked over and Flash had done the same. It was easy to do, so I assumed the deck gang lowered the gravity plating. I flipped the gear handle and watched all three skid indicator lights go from steady green, to flashing red, to off. I used the RCS to thrust out of the hold (I didn't want to blow away or ignite any fires with my main engines). Once out of the hold, I did a quick flight around the Craton to survey the damage. It was bad. "Lets go!" I punched it and took off towards the planet with Lindsey off my wing tip.

"Viper Flight, Craton requests Roller Actual," I heard James say in my helmet.

I clicked my comm. Button, "This is Roller Actual, go ahead."

I heard Marks, "Hurry up Roller, and make it back."

"I promise I wont stay longer than I have to," I responded. I turned my head and looked at the ship. Then I looked forward towards the eye of the storm. Then I heard DRADIS lose Craton's IFF, she had jumped out. I made certain to start the timer on my watch to countdown from five hours. We entered the storm.

"So what's so special about these Vipers?" asked Lindsey.

"They feature the CMS just like the Craton, but it drowns out our DRADIS. They are equip to work with Virtual Environment helmets, giving the pilot a full degree of visual acuity. But it's most advanced feature is a limited jump drive."

"What!" I heard her say in shock. "How can you fit a FTL inside craft this small?"

"Well, these babies are prototypes. Technically, they are not even Vipers. R&D was going to call them Cobras. These are Cobra mark threes. But the name was never finalized by the selection committee. So on paper, they are Viper mark eights."

"Why mark three?" She asked as we took another turn in the storm.

The stars had vanished and we relied on the computer to navigate for us. "The mark one was too heavy to maneuver, so they redesigned it. The mark two looked kind of like it does now, but the FTL had discharge problems. The test birds exploded during jumps. So for the mark threes, they took the Viper mark seven body, threw in the Cobra mark one engines, and added an FTL from a Raptor; modified to make it smaller. The result was this, the Cobra."

"Wait, wait, you said they blew up when jumped?"

I smiled at her question. "Yeah, the accident board concluded it was from the newly designed FTL. But these birds have a drive modeled after the Raptor FTL's. The smaller FTL has a flaw. Simulation's show it burns itself out after the first jump. So, even though they haven't been tested, we should be fine (I hope)."

"Frak. Now you tell me," she said sarcastically. We took another turn. We were at thirty percent thrust due to the turns in the atmosphere. I remember thinking how neat it was that the Anchorage was inside a massive storm in a gas giant. What was even more interesting, was the storm's eye created a calm passageway all the way down to the iron core at the center of the planet. "In all my years flying, I have never seen anything like this."

"I know what you mean," I added. The lightning had a way of lighting up the green gas surrounding the passageway. We kept cruising until we had the Anchorage in site. The massive station was many times larger than a Battlestar. It looked like someone stacked several bicycle wheels on top of one another. I referenced the data in the computer. The station had multiple docking rings, bays, and hatches. I chose the open landing bay at the tip of the spire. I knew the old communication's array was located in the spire, and I wanted to check the station's logs. Additionally, I figured if someone were to come looking for us (like the Cylons) they would think we would be docked in the storage rings. "There it is. Follow me in." I heard her acknowledge with two clicks. We flew quickly to the spire. I checked my watch. Over thirty minutes had gone by.

We landed in the docking bay the same way we took off from the Craton, slow and controlled using RCS. Once our skids were down, I shut down the mains, but left the power on. The gravity plating on the deck was low, so we took it easy getting out of our Vipers (the bay was open to space, so we didn't want to float off). We did an EVA from our Vipers to the pressure hatch. I knew the flight suit was capable of storing ninety minutes of oxygen without a tank, but I couldn't help but continue to check the O2 readout on my sleeve.

The hatch was unpressurized and, once unlocked, swung open easily. Inside the airlock was an old three lever system. We shut the outside hatch and sealed it with the first lever. Then we pressurized the airlock with the second lever. Once pressurized, a pressure sensor released the third lever, allowing us to pull it, which unlocked the inner hatch. We swung the inner hatch door open and checked the outside air with our atmosphere detector. The stem stayed green. I took off my helmet, collars, and gloves and left them next to the hatch. Cramer did the same.

I finally grabbed my flashlight and began to walk down the dark dengy corridor. The air was stale and smelled of rust. There was no light in the corridor, except from the two flashlights we held. The data disk on the Anchorage had only a basic overview of the stations features, inventory lists and approach and docking procedures. It had nothing on actual maps, and this place was massive. You could hear drips, and the echoes of metal scraping metal miles away. As we walked, a sudden shudder would run down the spire and we felt it in our feet.

We made our way slowly. The corridor zigged and zagged. We quickly realized we would become disoriented so Cramer began cracking and dropping chemical light sticks to mark our way. I checked my watch. We had been in the station for forty five minutes. I did quick math in my head. That gave us just over three and a half hours to get back to the Craton. I guessed we could make it to the Vipers in ten minutes at a run, then five minutes for power up, and another thirty minutes to get clear of the EM field. After subtracting, I had to leave in. . . three hours max! Suddenly the five hour mark wasn't that far away. We kept walking around the dark labyrinth. We were getting no where, and I was feeling stupid again. _What am I doing here?_ I stopped and prayed to the Gods. I saw Lindsey look at me funny.

-

_We walked into the ready room. The whole training squadron was in there waiting for us. We felt embarrassed and overdressed wearing our Dress Grays. Our Squadron Commander was there waiting for us, Major Matt Tinker. He was a big black man that was more teddy bear than man. He began clapping when we walked in. He made us stand at Parade Rest in front of everyone. The class followed in clapping. Our Instructors from Battle Sim One were also there clapping. I didn't know how to interpret it. I looked over to Kara, she had the same look of shock and confusion. "Sir?"_

_Major Tinker had a smile and began to laugh as he talked. "The Commander and XO have already given you a scolding, so I'm sure mine would be lost on both of you." The clapping died down and was replaced by smiling faces. Tinker walked up to Kara. "So instead I'll just make fun of you." Everyone laughed. "Lt. Thrace. You saved the life of your wingman, twice. You remote ejected him, then you performed mouth to mouth on him, after he had suffocated, on his PUKE!" Everyone 'ewwed' in unison. Tinker kept his smiling grin. "Yeah you all destroyed two Vipers, but hey, you managed to take out _one_ Instructor." Everyone laughed._

_This was uncomfortable, but it was better than being yelled at. One of our Instructors yelled, "One bird with but two stones!" Everyone laughed at the change in phrase._

_Tinker continued. "Why you were both up there," he looked up referencing the CIC, "we have __been listening to your flight recorders. And, we have finally come up with a suitable set of names for our last two classmates." Everyone was smiling. We had been without call signs for months. We just hadn't done anything to stand out enough to get one. Well, that is until now. "Kara, you shall be known as," Tinker looked back to the class sitting in the chairs. The class began to drum their hands on the folding desks, mocking a drum roll. "Starbuck!" Laughter. I laughed too._

_I heard Kara, "Oh my gods. You're fraking me?"_

_"Nope!" said Tinker laughing. "What are you smiling at Cody?" My smiling faded, and Kara's returned. "We entertained so many for you Ryan. Puker. Upchuck. Chunks. Throwsupalot." Laughter. My face was red. "Deadthrowup. I think Ensign Richie said Sirpukesinmyhelmetanddies was a good one, but I think it was too long. Instead, we will go with Roller." The laughter died a bit. Kara and I were wondering why 'Roller.' Tinker beat us to it. "Lt. Cody, you are the first student to impress his instructor by performing stunt maneuvers on your first Battle Sim. You did it three times."_

_"Three?" I asked._

_"Examing the data recorder, you made inputs to roll up, over, and away from Lt. Thrace saving her life, by throwing you into an unrecoverable roll. It was enough to impress the Commander to keeping you both. So you are forever known as, Roller." Tinker turned to the class, who all stood. "Viper Class Bravo One Seven, I give you your final pilots: Starbuck and Roller!" Everyone laughed and cheered, and began pouring beer._

_-  
_

_After we left the party in the ready room, we finally got some time together to go over the After Action Report and the Safety Report. I was reading the control inputs from Kara's Viper and saw she remote ejected me. I looked up to her sitting across the table smoking a cigar. "Thanks for that Kara."_

_She looked over to me. I could see in her eyes something was wrong. "I didn't pull the eject."_

_I didn't register that comment right away. I looked down at the report and back up to her. "Kara, our Foxtrot Charlie automation was off, but the connection was linked. When we initiated that last roll, I engaged it again. So you saved me by ejecting your self. Don't feel guilty you didn't know it wouldn't do it."_

_She blew out smoke and gulped down her beer. "No, you're not understanding!" She stood and walked over, and sat right next to me. She grabbed the report and threw it across the room. "I was so embarrassed by me fraking up, I didn't want to eject. I thought you were already dead. So I was going to just let my Viper plow into an asteroid. Then I changed my mind. By then the g-forces were pinning my hands to the other side of the craft. I prayed. For the first time since I was a little girl, I prayed for the Gods to save me."_

_I stared deep into her eyes which were no longer tearing. They were full of something else. "What are you saying Starbuck?"_

_"I didn't pull the eject Ryan."_

_"You're saying God pulled the eject?" I asked weirded out._

_She got up, placed her cigar in her mouth, and grabed her empty beer mug. She began to leave the room. "I don't know what pulled the eject Cody. Alls I know, is that something did. Something, or someone did." She paused in thought. I just stared at her. She exhaled her smoke. "I think a higher power wanted you alive." She turned and winked at me before leaving the room. I stayed sitting there and went over the reports. I left the room hours later to listen to the flight recorders and check the data recorders myself. After investigating the whole night, I couldn't explain an accidental eject. That night, when I got into my bunk, that was the first night I actually prayed, and meant it._

_-  
_

I prayed. As I leaned on the wall, I got a jab in my back. Turning, I moved my hands over the spot that jabbed me. I felt a lever. I flipped it, and the lights came on. We were in a hallway that wasn't as wide, as it was long! The hallway would turn a little left or right, but while we thought we were in a maze, it was just our minds playing tricks on us in the darkness. And, right there across from me, was an old map hanging on the wall. The map took most of the wall panel. It was a stretch layout of the station, sideways.

We were in a maintenance shaft that ran the length of the spire. From the look of the shaft, it seemed like a sewer. Rust had lined the walls. Piping, electric lines, and rubber hoses were hanging overhead, bolted to the walls, and running under the metal floor grates. Water drips were coming out of some pipes, while steam hissed out of others. Most of the lights were busted, others flickered, and a few stayed lit. Staircases rose out of the shaft every few hundred yards. This station was old.

Looking back at the map. I saw we were further than I expected to be. We were halfway up the shaft. We had passed the communication's room by a mile, It was right next to the landing bay. I sighed. "Frak."

Lindsey asked what I was frustrated at. "Well, since we are halfway there, you want to check the storage?"

I looked at my watch then at her. "Let's do it, but first. . ." I looked at the map and found a route to the elevator. We went up the next staircase, took another winding corridor, and arrived at the old elevator. I hit the arrow button on the panel. Because, in the spire of the station, the gravity plating was vertical, the buttons on the elevator pointed left and right instead of up and down.

We arrived in the central hub of the spinning storage holds. The metal grate doors of the elevator slid up after pulling, and we walked out. The power was on up here. That made since because the Galactica had just been here. It took an hour to check all three holds. We then decided to check the Large Ordinance Room (it was a central vault that held nukes). We made our way through the spoke crossway's from the top storage hold, to the spire. As we were about to open the hatch to walk into the main corridor outside the Large Ordinance Room, we heard voices. They were mere mumbles when we approached the hatch. I looked at Cramer. She looked back. She had heard it too.

"By your command," we heard the voice say. The voice sounded remarkably like. . . Shelly Godfrey.


	9. Chapter 9

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

BSG 41

Lindsey's face lit up, "Survivors!" I covered her mouth with my hand. The move shocked her. I nodded 'no' and made the motion for her to stay quiet. I turned and focused my attention to the voice's on the other side of the door. I heard what sounded like a piston hitting the floor. It was a distinct clang against deck plating. Very slowly, I turned the lock on the hatch. No matter how slowly I turned it, the sound of the rusted metal was loud. When I felt the bolt about to unlatch, I waited for the clanging to return from the other side. After mere seconds, the clang sounded again, and I slid the bolt out with a loud THUD!

We waited to see if we caught anyone's attention. The clanging and the voices continued, they had not heard us. I tried to open the hatch as slow as possible, but the hinge was so rusted, the sound it created echoed down the spoke we were in. The clanging and voices continued. I opened the hatch just enough to squeeze through. We made it to the other side and found ourselves in a winding corridor that turned with station. The voices were coming from down this corridor. I drew my sidearm. Cramer did the same. We walked as quick and quietly as possible toward the voices. The clanging continued. I didn't have any idea what it was.

"The Galactica took the civilian ships with them," said a female voice one.

"We monitored the civilian ships as they jumped out from behind Galactica," said male voice one. "Their jump distances will be limited by the Delta Class Transports."

Clang. Clang. Clang.

"A few of us are with them," responded female voice two. "Basestars have been dispatched and are pursuing. A Six has sabotaged an Intersun Passenger Cruiser. We are getting fixes on the rogue fleet every half hour."

Clang. Clang. Clang.

"Our brothers will destroy the Galactica's fleet, no matter how far into uncharted space they get," said male voice two. I stopped dead in my tracks and listened. "My concern are the remaining Colonial units in the system. We downloaded the flight plans from Cyrannus Traffic Control and have destroyed most of the transports. We have seven Colonial Fleet vessels yet to be destroyed. The Battlestars Pegasus and Virgil are the two priorities."

"What about the Craton?" asked female voice two.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Male voice two continued, "We know where the Craton is. For the time, we will observe from a distance. The Craton is capable of taking us out easily. We will wait until we have a strong defense against the new ship's automated weapons. We should also find the Battle Cruisers Oceanus and Cronus. The Destroyer Metanira and freighter Theban are low priorities."

I thought I recognized the voice. I slowly walked around the final corner and peeked in the room that they were talking in. My heart was pounding. I felt adrenaline pump through my veins. I heard my heart beat in my ears. My palms were sweaty and I was breathing hard. I held a death grip on my sidearm. My eyeball moved insight of the group of people talking. I saw Shelly Godfrey. I saw a young woman in a flight suit. I saw a man I had never seen before. I saw metal Cylons! I began to hyperventilate. I saw the owner of male voice two. I saw his twin brother. I saw copies of everyone. I saw a man I knew! I couldn't believe it.

I eased back into the corridor. Lindsey had a confused look on her face. I wanted to tell her everything I saw. I didn't know if I even understood the things I saw. The Cylons looked like us. I saw him in there. I saw him in there! We had to get back to the Craton. By the time I grabbed her, she was looking in the room also. Her reaction was the same as mine. We made our way down the hallway and around to the spire's maintenance shaft. We didn't dare try to use the elevator in fear of being heard. I kept my sidearm out. Once we safely made it to the shaft, I ran. We had the entire length of the spire to get down. I checked my watch. We had sixty minutes to get to the Craton. My legs were heavy. I holstered my sidearm so I could run quicker. Lindsey had the lead and she was faster than I.

The near mile shaft took its toll on my thighs. Once we reached the pressure hatch for the open landing bay I checked my watch; we had ran the shaft in just under eighteen minutes (a personal best). Lindsey began to put on her helmet, gloves and collars. I had on my gloves and collars when I realized I still hadn't done what I set out to accomplish. I hadn't checked the communication's room just below us. I told Lindsey to wait for me in her Viper. She reluctantly agreed. I left my helmet at the hatch and ran back towards the top of the spire, but stopped at the first staircase. My instincts told me to go back and get in my ship, but I found the will power to overcome them.

I went down the grated stairs and found myself in another dark shaft. Frak. I pulled out my flashlight with one hand and held my sidearm with the other. I walked quickly to the communication's room. Outside the room, I saw the metal door was cracked open. My heartbeat quickened. I was ready to shoot anything, and after what I just saw in the Ordinance Room, I would probably shoot anyone. I swung open the hatch. A metal screech echoed down the corridor. I stepped inside and flipped the switch on the wall. I got a face full of sparks as the lights flickered on. The room was empty. I holstered my weapon and put my flashlight back in my pocket. I was in a octagonal room. Old computer monitors lined all eight walls. The consoles were older than I was. Everything had a layer of dust on it. It was clear from the look of the room that no one had stepped in here for a few decades.

I stood in the middle of the room. I sighed loudly and looked straight ahead. There it was. Taped to the center console was a note. The paper was fresh. I walked over to it. Written in elegant handwriting was a message. I gasped when I read it: _Finwat Terish Bason –Adama_

I grabbed the note and stuffed it in my upper flight suit pocket. I turned around. Shelly Godfrey was standing in the doorway. I tasted bitterness in the back of my throat as adrenaline rushed through my system. I knew how fast she was. I could only guess what else she was capable of (being a human model of Cylon). She looked at me and smiled. She was beautiful. I went for my gun. Everything else was a blur. My gun flew across the room before I knew what had happened. I was on the floor in pain. She had me in a pin with my already broken arm behind my back.

"Do you know how much it hurts to be electrocuted?" she asked me. Right then I had a moment of realization. She was the same person I killed on the Craton.

I went for my knife on my ankle. When she saw I had another weapon, she snapped my arm in the same place that it was already broken. I screamed and cried. The pain was unbearable. What little my arm had healed was gone. I heard bone on bone as she crushed it. I puked because of the pain. I looked up at her with tears in my face. I said a prayer for the Gods to take me.

BOOM!

Her face exploded as blood splattered all over the room. I saw Lindsey in the doorway. She had used an explosive round on Shelly. I had fallen on my back and held my arm with my right hand. She rushed over and helped me up. The pain wasn't going away. She reached in her flight suit. She pulled out something and stabbed me with it. My arm felt better. I felt amazing! "Let's go," she said as she helped me walk.

When we got to the staircase, we heard the clanging again. I knew now it was the footsteps of the Centurions. They were coming down the shaft. We slowly made it up the stairs and back to the pressure door. The clanging was getting closer, and we saw metal reflections in the distance. I saw pictures growing up, and heard stories. I knew why they were called toasters, but now I saw for myself. Lindsey put my helmet on me and sealed it. Then she put hers on. We entered the air lock just as bullets rang out. She closed the door. The first lever was flipped.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Boom. Boom. Boom.

The inner door locked. She flipped the second lever. The air was sucked out.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

The third lever flipped. The outer door unlocked. She swung it open and helped me to my Viper. I couldn't help but look up at the storm. The view was amazing. The Anchorage was just floating here in the calm of the gas giant. Above the station was a Cylon Basestar and a Wing of Raiders flying in a grid formation. I heard Lindsey over the intercom, "can you fly?" I mumbled something like yes. She gave me an uncertain look, but there was no other way to get out unless I flew my own Viper. She helped me in. I was drugged and only had one arm that worked. I had to pull it together. I had to get back to the Craton and save them before the Cylon on board could do any damage. I had to follow Adama's note.

I took a deep breath and did my best. I sealed the canopy and turned on my engines. I had thrust the Viper up, retracted my skids, and punched it. Lindsey was following close behind. We were at full power in the storm. I knew the Cylons were behind us, and I couldn't control my speed and fly, so I just left it on max. "They're following!" I heard Lindsey on inter plane.

"Understood. Keep it maxed out. We can outrun them," I said.

"If we do that Roller, we won't have enough fuel to jump."

She was right. I pulled back a little on the throttle. It was enough to allow the Raiders to catch up. Blue bullets streaked by my canopy. "Frak! Flash, get on my wing. I'm going to try something." She got up next to me. I took a deep breath. "Roller's going Foxtrot Charlie. Keep straight controlled turns Flash, or I'll go flying off into the gas giant." She clicked her radio twice. I flipped my Viper. I over corrected. I had more drugs in my system than I thought. The entire Wing of Raiders were flying after us and they were shooting. I saw the station explode just before we took the first turn. I kicked in Split Axis and began to take out the Cylons. "They're not too efficient when they can't rely on DRADIS."

"From the looks of things, you're not too efficient being on drugs!"

She was right. I was missing most of the shots. So I decided to go all in. "Flash. I got an idea." We quickly went over the plan I formulated in my head. She thought it was too risky with my broken arm, but I outranked her. We had a turn coming up, and I knew Foxtrot Charlie automation would kick off when the flight parameters exceeded tolerance limits (you can't fly backwards at 80% power and take a sixty degree turn). We had to do it now!

I fired a screen a missiles, followed by my one tactical nuke. The missiles were all destroyed before doing any damage to the Raiders. But since they were programed to detonate on any impact, half the missiles exploded when the bullets hit them. The resulting explosions provided a perfect screen for my one small nuke. The tactical warhead zoomed through the explosion screen and detonated in the middle of the Raider Wing. Just as the Raiders became engulfed in light, I flipped my Viper around the turn as Lindsey flipped her backwards. She did what I did.

We took the turn at a too high a speed. The automation kicked off. I rolled the craft around the turn and punched up to eighty percent. After the turn, Lindsey flipped and went Foxtrot Charlie. She dropped her missiles like mines. They didn't launch, they just stayed active, floating, in the blind spot on our side of the turn. She waited for the Raiders to come around the corner (what was left of the Raiders). She remote detonated her missiles. Then, while she had an explosive screen, she launched her one nuke. Most of the Raiders were history, the half a dozen others continued their pursuit. She flipped back over, and we went to 100% on the engines. We were close enough to the exit to not run out of fuel.

While we were outrunning the Raiders, I took a look at the on board network. The old CNP was doing a good job with the mark eights. A few faults had popped up and they were easily correctable. The Cylons hadn't even attempted to hack the Vipers. I guessed this was due to the gas giants EM field. As soon as we were clear of the field, we had to jump or I was sure they would get in. I checked my watch. The Craton was going to jump soon. At 100%, the path through the eye of the storm was quick.

We took another turn, and saw the opening. But more importantly, we saw four more Basestars in orbit above the storm, with Raiders dispatched in a grid. They were forming a net around the opening. We would be out of the EM field in minutes, but the Cylons would see us approaching long before then. The Raiders were still pursuing behind us. We were trapped. Our only hope was a last ditch effort to run the blockade with our guns blazing. "Blow your way through. Jump as soon as you get a lock!" We approached the edge of the storm at full speed. I waited for the Raiders in front of us to see us before I opened up. It didn't take them long. Just as I was about to fire, I saw one of the Basestars explode in a blaze of light. We didn't waver at the distraction. We kept pushing on, almost about to reach the edge of the EM field. Again, I was about to engage the Raiders in front of us, when they broke off towards the exploding Basestar.

My DRADIS screen came to life as we exited the field, simultaneously; the FTL computer began calculating our relative position. It locked the jump in no time flat. The DRADIS sweep was distorted by radiation from the exploding Basestar. At that moment, I didn't think anything of it. I looked over and saw Flash disappear (she jumped). Just as I was about to engage the jump drive, the radiation cleared, and I got another large blip on my DRADIS. Something told me to wait. I looked in the direction of the exploding Basestar. The other Basestars were heading that direction. All the Raiders were on the other side of it. The DRADIS screen made noise of a contact. I looked down and saw a blue dot on my screen.

I looked over at the now destroyed Basestar, and saw a ship move out from behind it and engage the other three base ships. My heart jumped. I looked down at DRADIS. The IFF read: BATTLESTAR VIRGIL.


	10. Chapter 10

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

BSG 41

"Battlestar Virgil, this is Craton Viper zero one. . ." I was cut off. A Raider had destroyed my vertical stabilizer. Master Warning and Caution lights lit up my dash, followed by aural cues (_WHOOP WHOOP DESTRUCTION NUMBER ONE ENGINE)._ My RCS went crazy and began spinning me end over end. I had to jump or risked being destroyed. All I could make out through my canopy was the Virgil struggling to take on the three other Basestars. She had successfully destroyed one base ship, but that was out of surprise. The other base ships were mounting a strong defense. They had surrounded the Virgil and were beating the frak out of her with missile after missile.

I couldn't do anything but watch.

-

_"All rise," said the clerk in the courtroom. We all stood up. The judges walked in. I was ten. _

_The middle judge spoke, "David Cody." My brother and his lawyer stood. "We, the Fifth Circuit Supreme Court of the Colonial Justice Branch, find you, the defendant, Guilty on all charges. Due to the severity of these charges, your punishment will be swift."_

_"Your Honor?" asked my brothers lawyer. _

_"What Mr. Lampkin?" responded the judge irritably._

_"Sir, we must ask for Re-Convenience on the Deliberation. I don't believe you took into account the amount of negative. . ." Lampkin stopped to the judges hand raised._

_"Mr. Lampkin, you are a court appointed attorney and this being your first case, we understand you may not understand how this works. We consider all options. The evidence is clear, your client is guilty. He does not deny his affiliation with the Soldiers of One! This can not be disputed. Now sit there and be quiet or be held in contempt." Romo Lampkin sat down. He was young looking. I didn't know this was his first case. I didn't understand much. All I knew was that they were being unfair to my brother. "Now, Mr. Cody. The punishment for these crimes is death by firing squad to be carried out at 12:01 am tomorrow local time."_

_"NO!" I yelled. My father hushed me. The camera's in the back of the room began to flash as they took pictures. Everyone was interested in this case. The Judge banged the gavel. Everyone stood and then the Judges walked out. My father just sat there, holding me next to him while I was trying to run to my brother. I had tears running down my eyes. I had to do something. The court officers shackled my brother and left with him out the back of the room, while the reporters yelled questions at him. My dad wouldn't move. He was embarrassed. I found out the day earlier that he had lost his job because of my brother. "Dad, do something!" I cried._

_-_

_My father took me to my brothers execution that night. I had been crying all day. Death sentences were carried out in view of the public, so everyone was there to watch. The media had been hounding us since we left the court house earlier that day. They continued to hound us as we stood behind the plate glass of the execution range. Not but twenty yards away was my brother. He was blindfolded and shackled to the concrete floor. Adjacent to him were rows of booths with men in them with hoods on. I think their were ten men with rifles. I heard the announcer explain they would all fire a bullet, but nine bullets were blank, and only one was real. None of them would know who killed David. _

_My dad stood and watched, emotionless. He held my hand as I cried. "Dad! Do something!" He wouldn't move. Every time I said something, camera's flashed and people took my picture. The clock struck midnight. _

_"Ready!" yelled someone behind the glass. The riflemen loaded and cocked their guns. The clock began to tick. My father wouldn't do anything so I had to. I struggled free of his hand and ran out the room. The cameras went crazy as I did. My father came after me, but I was small enough to push under everyone in the crowd. "Aim!" I heard in the other room. I had to be quick. I ran down the hallway looking for something, anything. I had only seconds. I saw a maintenance closet. I turned the knob and the door swung open. In there I saw blinking LED lights and switches. I flipped and pressed everything. The power went out._

-

I looked down at my DRADIS screen. It was a blur of blue and red contacts. The Viper squadrons were weaving around the Virgil protecting it from the four Raider Wings. They were outnumbered and out gunned. I didn't know why they weren't jumping out. All I knew was they were going to be destroyed if I didn't do something.

While looking at DRADIS, it struck me! I looked around the cockpit and found the panel I was looking for. I flipped the red guarded switch, pressed the red button, and turned the knob to maximum. The result was immediate. Jamming the DRADIS scared the Cylons. The Raiders began to jump out, and the base ships were retreating. I was still spinning end over end, but I had one engine still working, and I maxed it out toward the Virgil. I had to stay in range of the Basestars or the jig would be up. During the whole flight back from the Anchorage, I forgot I had a CMS.

It didn't take but a minute for the base ships to jump out (I figured that's how long they needed to spool their FTL's). Once they had, my DRADIS showed the Vipers swarming like angry bees around a nest. I realized they were flying solely by sight. I kicked off the CMS and tried to contact the Virgil again. "Battlestar Virgil, this is Craton Viper zero one, come in please." Right then, all the Vipers turned directly towards me and locked on. I was about to shit my pants. "Virgil Vipers, I am friendly!" I yelled.

Static flickered over my radio, "Craton Viper zero one, identify with challenge response." A series of alphanumeric symbols flashed across one of my screens in the cockpit. I searched my knee board for the correct response and typed it in and hit send. "Hostile challenge verified. Break. Break. Virgil Viper Wing, this is a priority one recall. All Vipers land immediately. Combat landings authorized. Break. Break. Craton Viper zero one, you can come aboard or be left behind."

"Virgil, this if Craton Viper, request actual," I said.

It took a moment. "Go ahead actual," I heard the familiar voice over the radio.

"Virgil, this is Commander Ryan Cody. I have suffered structural damage and am unable to land."

"Commander Ryan Cody?" I heard the man ask. "Sir, this is Colonel Matt Tinker. What the hell are you doing out here Roller?"

"It's a long story Slasher," I called him by his call sign. "Where is your Commander?"

"Commander Gudmundson is being operated on. He was shot. Come aboard so we can jump out of here."

"No. I need you to come with me. I am transmitting the coordinates of my ship. They won't be there much longer so we need to go now!"

"What about you?" asked Slasher.

"I have an FTL, we need to go Colonel."

"Understood Roller. Meet you there. Virgil out."

I looked down at my panel and hit execute on the FTL panel. I could feel and hear the drive spin. I disappeared into oblivion instantly as I reappeared at the rendezvous.

-

The Craton immediately targeted me. It didn't take long for our IFF's to be read. The Virgil appeared right behind me. My DRADIS showed something interesting. I read all the IFF's out loud to myself. I think I did it to realize that during the end of the world, people do survive. "Battle Cruiser Craton, Battlestar Virgil, Colonial Freighter Theban, Colonial Transport 32, Colonial Transport 676, Colonial Transport 213, Colonial Transport 954, Executive Flight 711, Nebula 909." I began to tear up. It might have been the pain killers wearing off.

My radio clicked. I heard Marks. "Roller, this is Craton Actual. Get your ass on board so we can jump."

I smiled, but it faded fast. "Negative Craton. Hold the jump."

A Raptor towed me into Landing Bay One. Each bay had five airlocks for each of the five Raptors per bay. The airlocks were able to hold two Raptors each, so my Viper and the Raptor towing me easily fit. Once we pressurized and the crews took over towing us in, I saw something surprising. The other four Vipers were in the bay, armed and ready to go. I smiled when I saw some of the pilots had already claimed the Vipers and had their names on the side of them. Lindsey was standing outside her Viper as the maintenance teams took over (she must of just landed). More than that, I saw more Raptors in this bay than five. I looked at shoulder patches on flight suits walking around the bay. They were all from different ships.

The deck gang had parked my viper and I opened the canopy. They helped me take off my helmet and out of the cockpit. The doctor was there and waiting on me. My arm needed surgery (I knew it without him telling me). As soon as I set foot on the deck, I heard the Deck Chief, "Commander on deck!"

I forgot he was talking about me for a second as everyone snapped to attention. "Carry on." The doctor walked over to me and tried to tow me off to sickbay. I objected and made him give me something for the pain. He objected, but patched me up as best he could. My flight suit sleeve had to be cut off because my arm was so swollen it wouldn't come out. "Captain," I looked to Lindsey. She walked over to me through the busy landing bay. "Did you tell anyone yet?" She nodded no. "Lets go then." We left the bay and began to walk to the CIC.

On the way there I stopped at a terminal and picked up the corded phone connected to it. "This is the Commander, get me the CIC." A moment passed. "Colonel, who's in the CIC?" Lindsey watched me as I waited and listened to the list of people. "No reason, I'll be up there in a minute." I hung up the phone than picked it back up. "Commander Cody for Sergeant Russ." A moment passed. "I want your team armed and ready in five minutes. Meet me outside the CIC." I set the phone down. I placed my good hand on my sidearm, when I realized I didn't have one, it was still on the Anchorage. I sighed. I was tired. "Let's go." We made our way to the Combat Information Center.

-

My arm was in a temporary cast and strapped to my chest. It hurt, bad! But I knew I had to do this first. We made it to the CIC. The ten Marines, armed and dressed in black, were receiving funny looks from the personnel transversing the corridor outside the room. They snapped to attention as I approached. "Listen up," I said. "The Cylons have the ability to mimic human form. They look like us now." They all turned to look at one another. "Their are many copies of the same human models. One of the senior officers are one of them. Once we go into the CIC, follow my lead and act fast. These things are smart and quicker than anything you have ever seen." The young Marines had stunned faces. "Sergeant Russ," I said to the lead Marine. "Your sidearm please." I held out my hand. He drew his pistol and gave it to me. I cocked it on the wall with one hand and turned to enter the CIC. The Marines followed.

The glass doors slid open as we entered. The entire room drew silent as they saw me being followed by a squad of Marines. Colonel Marks was talking on the corded phone at Command and Control. He quickly set it down when he saw us enter. I raised the gun and pointed it at Mark's head. Lindsey and the Marines did the same. "What?" asked Marks scared to death. He had his hands up and he was frightened.

I looked right in his eyes and yelled, "GET DOWN!" Marks dropped, and I shot past him at the Cylon standing behind him.


	11. Chapter 11

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

BSG 41

He ran around the room as we followed him with our weapons. Everyone in the CIC dropped to the ground as the Marines and I opened fire. He was quick. He ran ahead of our aiming and jumped into the mass of Marines guarding the glass door entry. Everything after that was a blur. I saw two Marines drop to the ground with their arms snapped behind them. I saw another Marine scream in pain as his knee was forced to bend the opposite direction (effectively breaking his kneecap). I watched as the Cylon raised the rifle he took from one of the Marines and pointed at me. I watched and heard the remaining Marines shoot him dead. I fell to the floor on my back. I tasted blood in my mouth. I looked down and saw I was shot in the chest.

Everything after that was blur. Mike and Lindsey were by my side as I coughed up blood. I just remember saying one thing before I passed out, "Recalculate a new jump, and get us out of here. NOW!"

-

_I was in a room staring at the ceiling. The ceiling was gone. In its place was a field of stars. I recognized the closest star and the planets surrounding it. It was my system. I saw Picon, the eighth planet from the sun. I saw Caprica, the middle planet in the system. Caprica was beautiful. It sat right in the middle of the Habitable Zone. I saw Virgon, on the outer edge of the zone; just close enough to the sun to support life. I was in a room at Virgon Station L5 (Lagrangian point five moved in Virgon's orbit around the Sun, at the same speed and direction as Virgon, without ever surpassing it or falling out of orbit). I was in the science room of the station._

_The room was white washed and glowing. The table I was standing at had a lighted map of the system on it. I had been here many times, transitioning between my base on Virgon. Standing across from the table was Commander Ronda Sheraton. She looked the same as I last saw her, bruised and coughing up blood. I was frightened as I realized she was dead. She looked right at me, with her dead eyes, and said, as she choked up blood, "find water bay."_

_Next to her, at the end of the lighted table, was a man I have only ever met once in my life during a tour. Standing there was Commander William Adama. He was old, and clean cut. He wore glasses and held his hands in front of him. He looked right at me and said, "finwat terish bason." Right then they both pointed to a point on the map. When I looked down at the map to see where they were pointing, I woke up._

-

"Commander?" I heard Marks say silently. I heard a steady beep, beep, beep from the medical equipment monitoring my heart. I heard people talking in the background. I felt a little nauseated. I slowly opened my eyes to find that the light hurt. It took a few moments, but I finally focused on the people around me. I saw Marks and Colonel Tinker from the Virgil. I also saw a black long haired woman I had never seen before. She wore a Colonial Fleet uniform with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on her collar. "Commander Cody, how do you feel?"

It was hard to breath. My lung hurt. My arm hurt. But I felt okay. "SITREP," I ordered. A nurse came over and helped me sit up.

"Sir, you know Matt Tinker," Marks said. Matt nodded hello. He was still as big and black as a bear, but held a polite soft presence. "This is Colonel Daugherty, skipper of the Colonial Freighter Theban." She nodded hello. Marks said Colonel, which made me look at her rank again. She was a Lt. Colonel. Then I remembered military protocol allowed Lt. Colonels to be called just: Colonels. "After you passed out, I gave David Slaton a field commission as a Lieutenant and he calculated our new jump. It took him about thirty minutes and just as we distributed the coordinates the Cylons jumped in. We managed to get out without a scratch."

I choked a bit. "How long. . .have I been out?"

"About a day and a half," responded Marks. "You were shot in the left lung. The surgery was a success, for your arm and your lung. Doc says you will be up and ready by tomorrow. All the repairs have been finished and the Craton is at 90%. Slaton has built an impressive network for our C3. He is a smart kid."

"The Virgil?" I asked.

Tinker stepped forward, "We are still repairing our main engines. When we jumped into orbit of Ragnar, a Cylon had sabotaged our drives by detonating a G-4 explosive near our main fuel lines. We were expecting to find the Galactica, but instead we found you. Thank the Gods."

"Commander Gudmundson?" I asked.

Matt looked down and shook his head. I took it as a bad sign. "The Cylon on board shot him three times in the chest, and killed eight other of my men before we took him out. Over all, we are attributing 327 deaths to that frakker." When he told me that, I sighed. I wanted Gudmundson to be alive, because I didn't want this responsibility.

Marks continued on the same note, "through what we know and what Captain Cramer has been able to tell us, we have searched the fleet and found no other humanoid Cylon models." I looked to Daugherty. "The Theban stumbled upon one of our Raptors. While we were waiting, I sent out our squadron to look for survivors. The Theban was the only other Colonial Fleet ship we could find. Cramer told us that a Destroyer, two Battle Cruisers and the Battlestars Pegasus and Galactica are still out there somewhere. We have forty Raptors jumping through the System looking for them, and any other survivors."

"Where are we?" I asked.

Tinker answered, "We are currently in polar orbit of the Sun."

I looked back to Daugherty, "Colonel, what's your story?"

She spoke up. Her voice was beautiful, "We were transitioning from the far side of the Armistice Line during the attack. We have no defensive weapons, so I took us off our flight plan and we were jumping every few hours until we came across one of your Raptors. I have a full crew and our holds are full of electronic equipment and spare parts that we never got to deliver."

I took a deep breath and started to choke. Thats when the nurse came back over to tend to me. She dismissed my visitors and I gradually fell back asleep.

-

_Sheraton and Adama pointed at the lighted map. I kept trying to look down to see it but I couldn't. Sheraton looked into my eyes and said, "finwat terish bason."_

_Adama looked at her and responded, "find water bay."_

_I spoke, "what does that mean?"_

_They both looked at me and pointed at the map. I couldn't see where they were pointing. I sighed. Sheraton spoke and coughed up blood, "fin. . .wat" cough "ter. . ." cough "bay. . ." cough._

_I looked up at the ceiling. The solar system was bright. A comet went flying by._

-

I woke up. I asked the nurse and found out I had been asleep all day. I managed to convince the Doctor to let me go. He gave me some medication and helped me to the Commanders Quarters. My arm was in a Velcro cast and my chest was in a white bandaged wrap. When we approached Sheraton's quarters, I found someone had changed the stenciling on the glass: _COMMANDER RYAN CODY. _Inside someone had cleaned up the room and taken out all of Sheraton's things. I suddenly felt sad. The Doctor helped me take a shower, clean myself, and get dressed before he left.

I had on a clean and pressed blue uniform. My new cast fit nicely under my sleeve, but it protruded just enough to tell there was something wrong. But that didn't matter either because I had to put my arm in a sling. I sat down at the desk and began to look through the clip boards that were piled up. I referenced the Final Count: 9 SHIPS/8643 PAX. That number made my stomach drop. With billions dead and entire worlds destroyed, only 8,643 were alive. I held onto my sanity by remembering the Galactica was out there and they had escaped with an entire fleet of ships. I could only guess how many people were with them, but I hoped it was more than 8,643.

I turned and looked at the DRADIS screen in the wall. All the ships were shown. The Craton and Virgil were on either sides of the fleet with the ships in the middle. I saw a flight of Vipers flying around. Where would we go?

Then I remembered the note from Adama. I didn't know where it went, but it didn't matter. I had it memorized. Then I remembered my dreams. Sheraton was choking and coughing up blood. _Find Water Bay_ was not what she was saying. She was saying _Finwat Terish Bason._What was it? In the dream they were pointing at a map of the system. I decided to go to the CIC.

-

The double glass doors slid open. When I walked in, everyone stopped and stared. I smiled humbly. "Commander on Deck," announced Marks.

"Carry on," I responded. I walked over to the information management table. Marks was there coordinating the fleet.

"How are you feeling?" asked Marks.

"Like I've been shot," I answered. I wasn't lying. I was in pain, but it was manageable. I looked up at DRADIS to check the surrounding space. The radiation from the sun was scrambling the sweep. However, the ships in the fleet were close enough to be read loud and clear. I looked down at the lighted table. On it was a map of the system. My dream immediately came back to haunt me. I looked over the lighted map and read every small detail. Nothing on it said Finwat Terish Bason. That's when lightning struck my brain. The three words were capitalized on the note Commander Adama left.

"What are you looking for?" asked Marks. He must have noticed me scrutinizing the map. "Water Bay?" I looked up at him. "I read the note and spent the last two days searching depot lists and old communication stations. I couldn't find any reference to Water Bay in the database."

"That's because Water Bay isn't real." He looked at me puzzled. I told him about Adama's note. "Have you ever heard of Finwat Terish Bason?"

I saw him thinking. And I saw he knew something. "I know Terish is a popular Gemenese surname."

I looked up and I immediately got it! "Mr. Slaton, come over here please." David walked over from the Tactical Station. "Lt. Slaton, get me any information you can pull on Oswald Terish."

"Who sir?" asked Slaton.

Marks smiled. "Oswald Terish. He was an astronomer from Gemenon over a hundred years ago."

Slaton nodded, "right away sirs." He left and got busy.

"For now, we keep this between just us," I ordered Marks. He nodded in agreement.

We all heard a DRADIS contact beep and looked up instinctively at the screen. "Sir," said Petty Officer James, "Virgil Rescue Raptor one five has returned."

"Any contacts?" asked Marks. Everyone looked over to James in hope. It occurred to me that we had all lost people we had cared about. Everyone had hope that maybe, just maybe, someone they knew was alive. James shook his head no. The crew in the CIC lost the little bit of hope they were holding on to. "That was our last bird out."

"Let's jump to a new set of coordinates, then send them all back out. We have to keep looking," I said.

"I think we should send a few to try and land on one of the planets," said Marks. "There has to be survivors there."

It didn't take long for the fleet to be ready to jump. Everyones FTL's were already spooled and had the coordinates locked in. They were just waiting for a reason. As Fleet Commander (a title I secretly anointed myself because I was the only Colonial Commander alive) I had the power to order everyone to jump. It suddenly honed in on me that I was, for all accounts, a very powerful person (something I always loathed). I wished Commander Gudmundson was alive. I wish Commander Sheraton was alive.

-

We jumped to a position that was inside the asteroid belt. This position didn't have the cover of a cloud of radiation, but if we dropped our power signatures, it painted us as just another rock in the belt. We launched an convoy of Raptors to new positions throughout the system. I signed off on a two Raptor test rescue mission to Tauron. They were to probe the Cylon defense of the planet; land if able; take survivors if practical; and report back. Meanwhile, I had retreated to my quarters with Marks and Tinker. I decided to let Tinker in on the note from Adama. We had star charts of the system covering the glass dining room table. I was going through the report Slaton had given me on Oswald Terish. It was not much information.

----

COLONIAL FILE: OSWALD DYSON TERISH

Oswald Terish was a male Astronomer born on Gemenon during the last century. He died at the age of 78 from Diamonds Disease. He married Finwat Windel and had three sons: Jack, George, and Oswald. He was infamous on Gemenon for being able to speak ancient Gemenese.

His most important discovery came the year before he died when he discovered the ice comet Jaygo's Comet. His other discoveries include the Twin Moons, the Prolmar System, and the Dead Planet.

----

It wasn't much information, but it was a jumping off point. I told the others. Tinker then added to the conversation, "Finwat Terish Bason must be the name of something." I gave him a look of stupidity. To which he countered, "No you're not getting it. These scientist all name crap after them or their family. Finwat was his wife. Terish was him. Jaygo's Comet was his sons (J-G-O). We need to do a search for scientists with the name Bason."

A few more hours went by. The books gradually stacked up on my desk. The maps began to spill onto the walls and floor of my quarters. We were done with coffee and now were drinking liquor. I was slightly buzzed. Half of our Raptor teams had come back. Only one Raptor returned with five survivors from a Caprican Corvette. We were still waiting on the Tauron Rescue Mission. The success of that mission was going to dictate if we send Raptors to the other planets.

Slaton dropped off the reports of all the scientists with the names Bason. After scrubbing the lists, we realized none of them fit the bill. That was when we began expanding our search. Each expansion returned more results with nothing to do with Finwat Terish Bason. A few more hours went by and we were no where. That's when I saw a file that had fell on the floor. It had the history of the family name Bason on it. "It's not a name," I said. Both men looked up at me from the books they were flipping through. "It's not a persons name. I think its a thing."

"What is a Bason if it's not a name?" asked Tinker.

"I don't know," I responded. I took another swig of liquor. I looked back at Oswald Terish's file. I read it out load. "Oswald Terish was a male Astronomer. . .blah, blah, blah. . .Diamonds Disease. . .able to speak ancient Gemenese. . .blah, blah, blah. . . Jaygo's Comet. ."

"Wait!" said Tinker and Marks together. I looked up at them. Marks and Tinker spoke in unison again, "Ancient Gemenese!"

I still didn't know what they were talking about. Marks got up and walked over to my computer station at the desk in the other room. He began a search. The result was instantaneous. "The computer has all known languages in its communications sub filter," answered Marks. "And that includes. . ."

"Ancient Gemenses," I responded.

Marks looked at the computer screen. "Bason, or Baysin is a noun derived from Baidlen. The word was used between the 4th and 5th dynasties of the Gemenon Golden Age as a description of purgatory. In later centuries, the word changed meaning to: death, dark, and black. During the last century of the 5th dynasty and the first century of the New Age, the word changed meaning again to mean: black land, purgatory place, or dead world."

I looked back down at the file, smiled and read out loud, " 'His other discoveries include the Twin Moons, the Prolmar System, and the Dead Planet."


	12. Chapter 12

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

BSG 41

We only had vague references to the Dead Planet. We knew Oswald Terish discovered it. We knew it orbited just outside the system's heliosphere, in a 27º orbital inclination to the ecliptic plane. But that was it. With all the databases on our ships, we had the collective majority knowledge of the twelve worlds, but nothing, at all, had any mention of where the Dead Planet was located in the sky. For awhile we weren't even sure that the Dead Planet was what we should be looking for. Then Marks found something interesting.

He ran the names Finwat and Terish through language filters. The computer spit out a few hundred meanings, but it was the Gemenese translations that caught our eye. Finwat meant _hope_ in the basic language. Terish meant a lot of things, but the 1st dynasty translation of Terish from Ancient Gemenese was: Last; End; Finished; Complete (later translations were depressing meaning: Kill; Slaughter; and Without Life). The Dead Planet was sounding more and more promising when we called it, "the Last Hope Planet."

_Where was it though?_ Both Commanders Sheraton and Adama left messages about it. _Was it possible they didn't know where it was either?_ All I had was time at this point. The only logical assumption I could make (after we considered all the possibilities) was that the Last Hope Planet was some sort of station or bunker that guarded our legacy in case of extinction. If anything, I hoped it had supplies. I wanted to refuel and rearm our ships.

Five days had gone by since the attacks. My arm and chest were healing fine, but they still hurt. I had sent out Raptors to every last munitions depot, moon base, space station, and scientific observatory. They had reported total destruction of each one. Furthermore, only one more ship had been found; The Chronicle. They had over six hundred on board. However, their ship was damaged and unable to join us until they fixed their FTL. I had a flight of Raptors protecting them until they could arrive.

In our makeshift fleet, the civilians began to go crazy. I had meetings with the ship Captains and listened to their concerns. Most of the ships were overcrowded due to those ships picking up survivors from other ships caught between planets during the attack. I reviewed the manifests of the passengers. In the end, I decided to reinstate any passenger with prior service in the Fleet, and I drafted a few hundred volunteers eager to get off those ships and live on a armed battleship. Overall, I managed to smooth over the restlessness in the fleet and replenish our ranks. While it wasn't great, everyone seemed to walk away a little happier (given the circumstances).

Through all this, the Battlestar Galactica and her fleet remained elusive. I had questioned Galactica's Viper Pilots we picked up. They knew nothing about the Galactica's location. There was no sign of them or the Battlestar Pegasus, Battle Cruiser Oceanus and Cronus, and the Destroyer Metanira. I considered it fortunate we were teamed up with the Virgil and the Theban. The Virgil, while one of the largest Battlestars ever built, was also the oldest for its model: Jupiter Class. The Jupiter Class was the replacement for the Original Battlestar Class ten years after the first Cylon War. The first Jupiter Class was the Columbia (she was retired and tore apart eight years ago). The second Jupiter Class Battlestar was the Virgil. She was built twelve years after the first war, and was due for decommissioning and recycling deconstruction in the next year. Her systems were capable of being networked, but I learned from Tinker that they were so unreliable and full of bugs, they just ran everything locally. But that wasn't what saved them during the attack. They were sitting Ready Alert in a Jump Cycle to various positions in the system (this was standard. Battlestars took turns on one month rotations sitting Ready Alert, just in case).

The Theban was older than the famed Galactica. She was old, but reliable. Her hull was just as dense as the Virgils. The other ships ranged from new to ten years old. They were all in good condition. The only problem were the people on board. They had the nerve to request a new government be appointed. It was public knowledge the government went to Case Orange. The Automated Government Emergency Beacon went dead five days ago, so we had no idea who the new President was (if there was one).

What I did know was that in the survivors we had, one of them was a Senator from Aerilon. He was causing a ruckus by trying to anoint himself the Acting President (in the Articles of Colonization, only the Vice President and Cabinet members could assume Presidential Succession. If that did not work, then the Speaker of the Quorum of Twelve assumed the duties until the Senate nominated a candidate [not the Speaker] and only the Quorum could vote on them). While he was not in the line of succession, he was doing a great legal job of getting others to go along with him.

Meanwhile, I gave Colonels Matt Tinker and Megan Daugherty promotions to Commander. In return, they appointed me Fleet Commander (which was not a real rank, just a way to distinguish my seniority [more like my blind luck]). They called me Fleet Commander due to the lack of any remaining Flag Officers. We had an assumption Admiral Helena Cain was alive on the Pegasus, but we couldn't find them. If Adama were here, he would be in charge. With Gudmundson and Sheraton dead, that left myself. I was actually starting to get used to all this responsibility. I was starting to like it. Another night went by.

-

_My dad stood at the lighted map table with Dead Sheraton and Old Adama. Sheraton and Adama were both pointing at something I assumed was the Last Hope Planet. I couldn't see where it was. My dad was pointing at a different spot on the map. While Adama and Sheraton bickered about Finwat Terish Bason and Find Water Bay, my dad pointed so forcefully at the map, his finger began to bleed orange blood. His outburst caught the others attention. He looked at the other two and said, "Case Orange."_

-

That next morning, I joined Commanders Daugherty and Tinker on the Virgil for breakfast. I couldn't help but get a warm feeling when the deck gang called the hanger to attention when I stepped off the Raptor to meet Matt and Megan. It happened again when the ships Public Address System advised the crew, "Attention Virgil, attention Virgil, we would like to welcome on board Fleet Commander Ryan Cody."

When we arrived in Tinkers quarters, breakfast was waiting. We let Megan in on what we were looking for. During the meal, Matt informed me the Chronicle had arrived safely while my Raptor was landing and he had searched their database for any mention on the Dead Planet. He found none. "It would seem the Last Hope Planet is lost to us," added Daugherty.

We talked about the subject for a bit before switching to the subject of the fleet. "That Senator from Aerilon is causing a lot of problems," noted Tinker.

"He wants to be the President of the civilian government," said Daugherty.

"That'll be the day. He isn't even in the Presidential Succession line," said Tinker.

"Well," I added. They both looked at me. "I saw what he is purposing and it is logical. If only we knew the outcome of Case Orange, it might shut him up."

Megan looked at me, "We picked up the Case Orange response." This caused Tinker and I to look at one another. "It was in my report." I hadn't read the report fully, I had only skimmed it. "After Case Orange, the Secretary of Education responded with her identification code. At the time, she was the only response. Case Orange activated her as the only successor to the Presidency. . ."

"Well, that settles it then," interrupted Tinker.

I cut off Megan too, "Where was he?"

Megan answered, "_She_ was on a transport coming back from Galactica's decommissioning ceremony."

"She?" asked Matt.

"Laura Roslin," answered Megan.

I was still a bit startled, "The Secretary of Education is the President?"

"No," responded Megan.

"But you just said. . ." began Matt.

"You interrupted me Commander," said Megan. "After Case Orange activated her Presidency, the Secretary of Interior responded with his identification code. He is 18th in line. Case Orange deactivated Roslin, and activated him."

"What does Case Orange consist of?" I asked Megan. She seemed to know a lot about it.

"Case Orange is a dooms day system designed in case the President, Vice President, and the majority of the Cabinet members and federal government are wiped out. It activates a beacon that does what it can to keep the civilian government functioning by emergency Presidential Succession." Megan got up and walked around to the computer terminal at Tinkers desk. She pulled up the official Case Orange Report, printed it out and handed it to me.

-

CASE ORANGE EMERGENCY SYSTEM

OPEN AT 1553202249

//--\\

D-456-345-A // RECEIVED // ACTIVATED // SEC EDU .43 (1553202300)

D-456-345-A // DEACTIVATED // SEC EDU .43 (1553220819)

R-675-235-A // RECEIVED // ACTIVATED // SEC INT .18 (1553220820)

JGO 112 STATION ONLINE (1553220825)

+1.1 STATION ONLINE (1553220910)

FTB STATION ONLINE (NOT CONFIRMED // NO RECEIPT)

\\--//

LAST TRANSMISSION

CLOSED AT 1553220911

-

When I saw the report, I couldn't help but laugh. Tinker got up and walked over to me. He looked at the report over my shoulder. "Anything strike you?" I asked him. I heard him laugh also. I could see Megan was lost.

We all left the room and went to Virgil's CIC. The ship was massive. She was nearly a fifth larger than the new Mercury Class and about four times larger than my ship, the Craton. Her Combat Information Center was very low tech compared to the Craton. It reminded me of the Galactica's CIC (the largest CIC in the Fleet) but a little smaller and more streamlined. The Center DRADIS console descended above the information management table, and multiple communication stations lined the Core on the second level. You could see where the multiple refits contrasted against the original design of the room. When I entered, the XO called out, "Fleet Commander on Deck!" To which everyone stood at attention. Tinker and Daugherty kept walking behind me as I ordered everyone to carry on.

We stood around the lighted Navigation Table at the Tactical Station. Tinker excused his Tactical Officer and the three of us began looking pulling up maps on the digital table. "What are we looking for?" asked Megan. Tinker filled her in on Oswald Terish and his discoveries. "FTB, thats the planet?"

"That right," I responded. "But someone made sure to delete its whereabouts from every published directory. However, JGO 112 Station and 1.1 Station, we know where they are."

Tinker pulled up the correct map, "Got it. Jaygo's comet is entering the Termination Shock."

"And I got the coordinates for the Twin Moons," I said.

"Raptor Recon?" asked Megan.

"You betcha," I answered. "Matt, pick out two Pilots and ECO's that you trust and send them to Jaygo and the Moons. Tell them they are looking for a station, satellite, a short range beacon, something. Once they get confirmation of something, they are to report back immediately." I sighed hard.

"What?" asked Matt.

"We are not the only ones who received the Case Orange transmission. The Last Hope Planet may be secret, but everyone knows about Jaygo's Comet and most have heard of the Twin Moons. I am worried about the Cylons. Too much has been lost already and this is the only thing we have going for us." I looked up at both of them. "I fear we will pay dearly to find our Last Hope."

-

A few hours went by until the Raptor teams reported back. I had just made it back to the Craton when the comet team was the first to come back. They reported mission success. Once they arrived, they immediately picked up a beacon. Then they downloaded the program the beacon was transmitting. The station then self destructed so they jumped back. The program was heavily encrypted. It took Slaton and I a few hours to hack it (even with the Craton's Encryption Computer). The program was six numbers and six dashes with a countdown timer: 1_23._5_6.5___ *4 HRS 7 MIN 21.67 SEC.

The other Raptor team reported back the Cylons were at the Twin Moons tearing apart the station, and they were not packing light. The Raptor picked up four Basestars around the station with 200+ Raiders. I gave up on the Twin Moons and went to my quarters. I didn't finally put the puzzle together until that night when I laid down in my bed.

With only 3 hours to go on the timer, I pieced everything together and my heart sank. We had to get to the Twin Moons, and we had to do it right fraking NOW! I got up and dressed in a hurry. Before I left my cabin, I phoned the CIC and ordered Commanders Tinker and Daugherty over here, along with their respective XO's. Further, I had Commander Tinker bring his CAG and Tactical Officer. Captian Cramer and Colonel Marks joined all of us. It took twenty minutes for all of us to assemble in the War Room.

I saw sleepy eyes and tired faces. On the interactive wall display, I had the countdown timer and the six digits: 1_23._5_6.5___*2 HRS 32 MIN 54.93 SEC. "Okay everyone. There is a last hope out there we are dubbing the Last Hope Planet," I began. "It took us these past couple of days but we nailed down what we think it is. Over the decades, someone went to great troubles to try and hide it. They have done so very effectively." I kept walking around the room as everyone listened. "The Last Hope Planet, or Dead Planet, or known officially as FTB Station, is a satellite object orbiting the sun just inside the outer reaches of our system. The planet is nothing more than a very small moon; so small you might consider it an asteroid or comet. Its orbital inclination takes it well outside of the suns ecliptic plane. More importantly, the Colonial station set up there is automatically jumping the planet to various points in its orbital path." Everyone looked at me then to the countdown timer. Only half of them put it together. "Case Orange activated two beacons at opposite sides of the solar system and turned on the faster than light drive at FTB Station. The beacons are a split message designed to locate the planet. As you can see, we have half the jump coordinates, we need the other half. Also, as you can see, we have to get the other half before the timer reaches zero and the planet begins jumping."

I changed the wall display to show the DRADIS sweeps of the Twin Moons. "We need to come up with a battle plan that will allow us to engage four Cylon Basestars, four full Raider Wings, protect the remaining fleet, and achieve the ultimate goal of downloading the other half of the message." Everyone sighed. "And," I looked at my watch, "we have two and a half hours to carry it out."


	13. Chapter 13

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

BSG 41

"Readjust Point Defense for close fire acquisition," I ordered while looking up and down between DRADIS and the information management table. Everything was happening fast. We were right in the middle of the battle.

"Point Defense recomputing," informed Lt. Dyson over the commotion in the CIC.

"Virgil has launched all Viper Squadrons," informed Petty Officer James.

"James," I said while looking up at DRADIS, "send scrambler to Captain Cramer. Inform her to standby." James repeated my order of the coded frequency.

"All defense cannons have automatically reacquired targets," reported Dyson.

"Three of the Raider Wings have entered the Kill Box. The fourth has not budged from the moon," said Slaton. He was running between the Tactical Station and C3 terminal. Slaton and I wrote an amazing program to protect our network, but like anything man made, it was susceptible to attack.

"I don't think they will move unless directly attacked," added Marks with a phone in his ear. He was talking real-time to Virgil's XO.

"Then that will have to do," I said to myself. "James, scrambler to Flash: Backyard is clear." She repeated the order. The ship jolted as a missile exploded on the hull. "Dyson!" I knew he couldn't help it. The computer was dealing with thousands of variables on so many different axis, a few were bound to get through the defense net.

We were well into the fight. The Cylons had four Basestars deployed around the Twin Moons. During the planning, we gave tremendous consideration into repeating our plan from the last battle. In the end, we considered doing something similar, but different enough to maintain surprise. The Cylons had proven they could learn fast.

We assigned the numbers one through four to the base ships (1 and 2 were behind the moons, 3 and 4 were in front). We assigned continuing numbers to the Raider Wings (Wing 5,6 and 7 were spread out around the moons while Wing 8 guarded +1.1 Station). My ship jumped in first with a Squadron of Raptors. The Craton engaged base ship 4, while Foxtrot (codename for Raptor Squad) engaged base ship 3. The move was predictable to our last engagement. Our goal was to cripple the base ships and begin to lure the Raider Wings away from the moons.

As soon as we engaged our targets, base ship 3 and 4 began shooting at us, and shooting blindly _around_ their ships in anticipation of our next jump. When we jumped, we (Foxtrot and Craton) reappeared behind Basestars 1 and 2. Simultaneously, Virgil appeared between Basestar 3 and 4. While we engaged our targets, the Cylon Raiders did just what we thought, they considered Virgil a more important target. Craton and Foxtrot achieved surprise, but Virgil got a brutal pounding from the already advancing missiles. Virgil established a perimeter and waited for us to cripple our targets.

When we jumped again, (Virgil only has two FTL's, she was unable to jump like us) we reappeared next to Virgil and reengaged base ship 3 while Virgil engaged base ship 4 (that move banged us up pretty awful. We jumped right in front of enemy fire). Simultaneously, Virgil began to launch their Viper Wing. Also, simultaneously, Foxtrot was out of missiles and jumped to the rendezvous, while Hotel and Whiskey (Raptor Squadrons) jumped in on other sides of base ships 3 and 4. All along, up to this point, we were playing hurt because we needed to lure all the Raiders away from the moons. It worked. The Raiders entered the space between Craton and Virgil, dubbed 'Kill Box'. Our Point Defense cleaned up the Raiders, effectively assisting the Vipers, while our Main Batteries took care of the Basestar. Virgil was holding her own and annihilating her targeted base ship. Craton was holding her own while annihilating our targeted base ship.

We had been waiting all that time to send a team to the station because of the Raiders guarding it. So I had just ordered Flash and her Squadron (Echo for the Raptors and Tango for the Mark VIIIs) to the station to achieve the main mission objective: RETRIEVE SECOND MESSAGE.

On DRADIS, I could see Echo and Tango appear above the station. That mission was up to them. There was nothing I could do for Echo and Tango. I turned to the Cylons at hand. Another missile hit us and I lost my footing and had to grab a hold of the table to keep my balance. By this point, base ships 1 and 2 were moving from around the moons to attack us. "James, scrambler to Lima and Oscar, send new jump coordinates from the computer and tell them they are a go!" I yelled over the continuing commotion. People were running in and out of the room and the continual digital alert rang in my ear.

"Virgil has severely damaged base ship 4, they are a little worried though, base ship two is almost in weapons range and Virgil has had a few dozen impacts along her engine pods," informed Marks.

"Tell Virgil not to worry," I said as I looked up at DRADIS. Marks did it too when he heard the sound of new contacts appearing. Raptor Squadrons Lima and Oscar appeared around base ships 1 and 2 and began launching missiles along with the handful of tactical nukes we had left. The already crippled Basestars tried launching what they could but they were hurt. Another missile hit us, this time directly above us. The resulting shock wave busted monitors, broke glass, and sent me to the deck. I recomposed myself and got up.

"Base ship 4 has been destroyed, the other base ships are retreating," said Slaton with a smile on his face. Everyone began to cheer.

"Quiet down!" yelled Marks. "We still have people out there and Raiders to clean up." Marks turned to look back at me but all he saw was me staring at DRADIS. He looked up and saw it. "The Raiders are retreating to the station."

"Echo and Tango are going to be overrun," I said to myself. "Marks, tell Virgil to send their Viper Wing after them, Craton will watch their back." Marks relayed the order through the corded phone. "Petty Officer Weston, bring us along side of Virgil. Dyson, update our weapons program to include the protection of the Battlestar. James, order Echo to the rendezvous. Mission clock?" I yelled.

"Mission elapsed time twenty six minutes," yelled Slaton. "Eighteen minutes until FTB Station jumps."

"Shall I send a scrambler to Commander Daugherty?" asked Marks.

"Not yet," I said holding my chest. My fall aggravated my injury. I looked back up at DRADIS and saw the Vipers following the Raiders towards the moons. Thankfully the remaining Basestars had jumped out. Now it was only a matter of time before they sent in reinforcements. "Marks, message to Virgil, follow us to the moons. Helm park us on top of the station, but keep Virgil in range. James, order Lima and Oscar to jump out to the rendezvous, and get me Tango Commander Actual."

Everyone moved quickly. I glanced over at Damage Control and saw flashing red sections in various spots along the entire hull. Slaton was still monitoring the C3, the Cylons were hacking it, but the firewall program we wrote was doing a good job of keeping them out. From the look of DRADIS I guessed we would be in weapons range of the station in nine minutes. The Viper Wing was about to fly into the remaining Raider Wings head on, they needed our help.

When Echo jumped in above the station, they were a smoke screen for Tango. No way could four Vipers engage a Raider Wing (the other two mark eights FTL's were burned out), so we used that. In mission planning, we hoped the Raider Wing above the moon would have entered the Kill Box, but most of us doubted that they would budge. So a squadron of armed Raptors jumped in above the station and engaged them. Echo was there to give Tango enough time to land and get in the station. The problem with this was only four people could be on Tango. So we used some radical out-of-the-box thinking (something I learned from an old friend in pilot training). We outfitted eight Marines with flight suits and strapped them to the under wings of the Vipers! (two per Viper) I had an awful thought when we were doing it that the spatial distortions from being outside the ship during the jump would kill them. So Slaton and I went over all the information we could on the mark eights flight dynamics. We managed to attach the Marines inside two hollow nuclear missile shells. That shallow spot was enough to keep them alive. This plan would get the Marines there, but not back.

I saw James nod in my direction. I picked up the phone. "Tango, Craton Actual."

_"Go ahead Actual!_" I heard Cramer yell over gun fire.

"Do you have the package?" I asked clearly.

_"Package acquired. Request pickup!"_ Her voice was scared. She must have been in a firefight with Centurions.

I looked over and spoke to Marks. He was listening to our conversation with another phone. "Wait until Point Defense sets up a perimeter to launch SAR Raptor." He nodded. "Flash, ETA to pickup three minutes!" I set the phone down.

"DRADIS CONTACT!" yelled Slaton. "Two Cylon Basestars and two Raider Wings, strike my last!" Every head in the CIC looked at Slaton then up at DRADIS. We saw it as he yelled it, "Six Basestars with ten Raider Wings, bearing 345 carom 290!"

"No. . ." I said quietly to myself. Marks was looking at me and talking to Virgil. I was deep in thought. I had a plan, but it included the death of Tango. I refused to let anyone else die over my decisions.

"Cylons will be in weapons range of the station in four minutes," said Slaton.

"James, scrambler to Daugherty. We need help!" I told him. We began engaging Raider Wing 8 (the one above the station fighting the Vipers) and waited for the other Raiders to get there. "Marks, Virgil Vipers are to retreat to protect her. Helm, lower us to a thousand feet above the station. Launch SAR!" I looked at Helm Control, and saw the ship descending a few thousand feet per minute. I also saw on Weapons Control the Point Defense Cannons taking out as many Raiders as they could, while Main Batteries began to track on to the approaching Basestars. I saw Damage Control and a new section light up yellow as stray bullets impacted our armor. I saw DRADIS and the Vipers pulling back from the station to protect Virgil as she hovered above us like a mother protecting her young. I saw DRADIS, as Theban arrived. She jumped in with the remaining fleet.

This was our 'just-in-case' scenario. Theban and the civilian fleet were there to give us numbers. Each civilian ship was modified to give off a Colonial Warship's signature (which wouldn't fool the Cylons for long). We also ripped out Craton's CMS and installed it in the Theban (it took quite a bit of retrofitting). The plan was for the ships to jump in, the Cylon's would see them on DRADIS and think it was a Colonial Battlestar Group. Then Theban would began jamming everyone's DRADIS and scare the Cylons.

Here was the tricky part. Craton needed DRADIS for the automated weapons to work. So Theban and the fleet needed to be in close enough to blind the Cylon base ships, while being able to provide us with a real time DRADIS data link. She had to do this before the Cylons saw what the fleet was really composed of, or the jig was up.

"Dyson, Gun Captains are to standby!" I ordered. I looked at the mission clock. We had eleven minutes until FTB Station jumped. On DRADIS, I saw the SAR Raptor land at the station. Then the screen scrambled. "Dyson, now!" I yelled. I had to wait for the data link to begin streaming from Theban. We were blind. We waited. Over the digital alert we heard the slight stutter of the cannons and felt many more impacts hit the hull. The Gun Captains were not as proficient as the automated computer. The ship jolted and rocked front to back, left to right. Sparks flew in the CIC as missiles hit us. The Cylons were firing blind, and they were doing a good job. "Virgil?" I asked Marks.

"They are holding their own," he said with a firm voice. I took it as Virgil was better off working without computers because they were older. A few more seconds lapsed before the data link came in. DRADIS now had a 1.6 second delay as it was scanned, encoded, transmitted, and decrypted for us. The delay was programed into the computer and automated systems resumed control of the guns. While the delay was in the variables, it inevitably made our guns a fraction of a second slower, which was noticeable. The guns were losing a fifth of the targets.

When I looked up at DRADIS I saw the SAR Raptor had taken off from the surface along with the four Vipers. I also noticed that the Basestars halted their approach, but their Raiders were still advancing. "Marks, recall the Vipers. James, tell Tango to land on Virgil and get me Tango Commander Actual. Also, inform SAR Raptor to jump to the rendezvous." James nodded. "Tango, Craton Actual."

_"Go ahead Actual."_ Cramer was breathing hard. She was trying hard to pilot the Viper through the mess.

"Do you have the package?" I asked. I also saw something catch Mark's eye. I looked at the DRADIS data link. Half the Raider Wings broken off and headed for the Theban and the civilian fleet. The jig was up.

_"The package is in my possession Commander, and the Flower was planted,"_ said Lindsey.

I looked at the clock: 7 MIN 32.82 SEC. "Flash, land on Craton. Actual out." I hung up the phone and looked over at the C3 terminal. The Cylons had hacked two of the ten firewalls. We were doing fine. The ship rocked again and an explosion in the aft section rippled through the ship. It was enough to cause concern.

"Raider Wings will be on Theban in sixty seconds!" yelled Slaton.

"Civilian fleet is to jump out. Marks, tell Megan she has to stay and cover their retreat," I ordered.

Marks nodded, "Aye sir. Virgil has all Vipers on board."

"Tell them to jump out," I responded. We all looked up as we heard the blips disappearing from the screen. After a few seconds, alls that remained was Craton and Theban. Lindsey had landed in the empty landing bay. "Helm, move us towards Theban." I looked at my watch. We didn't have enough time to jump to the rendezvous and then to FTB station. We had to decode it here and jump directly to the station then send back a team to the rendezvous. On the DRADIS data link, Theban was running from the Raiders, and we were trying to catch up to them, destroying Raiders all the way. If Theban left and we had no jamming, the Basestars would descend on us like wolves. We needed time for Lindsey to get up here and decode the message. I picked up the corded phone and was about to speak over the ships speakers.

"Radiological Alarm!" yelled James. We all turned toward him then up at the data link. The Alarms were coming from the direction of the Basestars. The base ships stayed outside of weapons range, but began launching their nuclear missiles (the big ones, not the tactical ones).

"Time to impact, thirty five seconds!" yelled Slaton.

I cued the PA, "Lindsey, get your ass up here right fraking now!" I slammed the phone down. "Marks, tell the Theban. . ." I was cut off as static filled my screen. We lost the data link. I looked over to Marks. "Theban?" I asked. He shook his head no. We didn't know if they were alive or not. Alls we knew was we lost contact with them. I waited a second for our DRADIS to turn on, but it didn't. I had a panic attack as several blasts shook the ship. I looked over to Slaton, "Why isn't DRADIS working?"

He was at the C3 station typing, "The CMS is still broadcasting from the Theban! We had to tie them to independent power sources. It's possible they survived the ships destruction."

"Frak!" yelled Marks.

"Helm!" I yelled, "ninety degree full Z axis rotation. Take us straight up. Full Speed! We have to get away from that CMS." More explosions rocked the ship. Damage Control showed most of Craton flashing yellow and red. I heard small sounds and felt some jolts and realized the Gun Captains resumed local control of the weapons. I felt relieved because I forgot that order.

"Sir!" yelled Dyson. "Gun Captains have destroyed inbound nukes, and they have a visual on the Basestars, they are tracking us."

"Their flushing us out with the nukes and Raiders," said Marks.

He was right. Lindsey ran into the CIC hugging a small computer. "Got it!" she yelled. Then a blast knocked her to the ground. I ran over and helped her up. Then I grabbed the computer and Slaton yanked it out of my hands. He plugged it into the C3. Lindsey was bloody. She was sweating and out of breath. Her flight suit was covered in scorch marks. It must have been some battle down there. "I'll be okay," she smiled over the chaos.

I walked over to the C3 terminal and assisted Slaton. We had three minutes to decode the message and jump out. We were lucky because we had the other program to use as a template. The decoding went quick. We had the jump coordinates: 1123.6536.5321.

Slaton plugged it into the FTL computer and began jump prep. Now, all we had to do was get away from the CMS so we could get a DRADIS fix on our position. We waited. We felt the gravity plating do its best to compensate for the relative speed we were at. Thud after thud and explosion hit and rocked the ship. The guns were letting too many through. Thats when weapons got a low light. "Point Defense Battieries running low. At this rate we will be out of ammunition in five minutes!" yelled Dyson.

"Helm, more speed!" I yelled.

"That's all they have," spoke Marks. I was angry. We lost the Theban.

I was about to yell at someone else when DRADIS flickered back to life. I was relieved. But that was short lived. Two more Basestars were in front of us and hey had launched everything. "Dyson, blow on the Flower!" He nodded. Dyson sent a relay message back to the moon. While there, Lindsey left one nuclear warhead. With the six other Basestars now orbiting the station, this was the perfect time to detonate. We watched as that section of the screen fill with static.

"Jump ready!" yelled Marks from Tactical.

"Do it!" I yelled just as the convoy of missiles were about to hit us.

We entered oblivion.

We reappeared. The mission clock had sixty seconds remaining. DRADIS swept the region. That's when we received a DRADIS Weapons Lock on our ship. Red blips flooded our screen. I was ready to die.

"Sir," said James, "I am picking up Colonial transmissions."

I looked back up at DRADIS and saw the red blips flicker blue as the IFF's were read: BATTLE CRUISER OCEANUS, BATTLE CRUISER CRONUS, DESTOYER METANIRA, FTB STATION, SURFACE DEFENSE SENTRY 1,2,3,4.


	14. Chapter 14

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

BSG 41

I would like to say that everything after that was fine and dandy, and we all lived happily ever after.

-

_"And then what?" I asked my brother excited._

_"Well, after Gemenon Frontage Beach, we will hit up Virgo Space Park," said my brother. He was planning a future vacation for us. I was seven years old and very excited. I loved my big brother. We were going to be together always. He was my best friend. "Just you and me."_

_"Can we see Caprica City?" I asked. I was laying next to my brother in his big bed in his room. We had been up all night telling ghost stories and playing with our Action Figures. _

_"You bet sport."_

_"Get to bed you two!" yelled my father from the other room. I usually slept with my brother so me being in here was okay. My dad was just upset we were up so late._

_"We'll talk about it later. Night kid."_

_"Night Danny." I turned on my side and closed my eyes. Then asked another question. "Are we going to really do this?"_

_"You bet kid. Things always go as planned."_

-

Unfortunately, things seldom go as planned.

As it turns out, the Oceanus, Cronus, and Metanira were all part of the Armistice Station Delegation, along with the Battlestar Mercury. They were the escort for the Colonial Armistice Officer. Due to the outlining regulations in the Cimtar Peace Accord, they could not ferry the Officer all the way to the Station, but had to remain fifty thousand kilometers from it during the Annual Peace Talks. After we racked all the timestamps from our reports and experiences, we concluded that those vessels were the first to engage the Cylons.

The three ships also offered another insight into the Cylon attacks. Each ship had a human model Cylon on board. We know now that the Cylon's must have infiltrated all our warships with an operative. Through our experiences thus far, in comparison with the Oceanus, Cronus, and Metanira, that operatives job was to terminate the Command Officers during the attack. Their Long Range DRADIS logs showed Armistice Station being destroyed by a Basestar. While that was happening, they were being attacked by a Raider Wing.

Fortunately, things seldom go as planned. That was the Cylons first engagement of Colonial warships in 40 years. They just so happened to attack four warships that were prepped and waiting for a fight in case the talks ended badly (which they did apparently. Sadly we will never know what went on during the talks on the station). They successfully infiltrated the computer systems of the four ships through the Command Navigation Program. The heavily networked Battlestar Mercury was quickly destroyed. The two old Venus Class Battle Cruisers and the fairly new Destroyer were heavily damaged. We don't know why, but the Cylons didn't shut the three ships down through the back door. Slaton and I think its because after the Battlestar was nuked, the resulting DRADIS static and residual radiation blinded the Raiders, but we will never know.

After the three ships jumped out, the human Cylons activated and killed the Command Officers. We know had five known Cylon models. The highest ranking officer of the three ships is a Major (a Doctor) and he has been trying to delegate his time between surgery and commanding. They picked up the full Case Orange transmissions immediately after it was broad casted and began investigating off that. They had no knowledge of Finwat Terish Bason before hand. It just so happens, the first part of the Case Orange transmission contained a set of coded jump coordinates for Orange Bunker. When they arrived, they picked up the Secretary of Interior (now the President) and his staff before the Cylons arrived. With the help of the new President they found Jaygo's Comet and the Twin Moons.

While they were at the Twin Moons getting the second set of coordinates, the Cylons jumped in and they began the first battle right before us (which explains why eight additional Basestars jumped in during our battle). They managed to get the coordinates, but not before their ships were crippled and hundreds died. The President was injured and fell into a coma. The Cronus was barely holding together. A few of her engine pods were ejected and most of her hull was breached, she would have to be scrapped. Oceanus was banged to high heavens but she was reparable. Metanira was the best ship out of all of them. Her speed and agility kept her in good condition.

When they arrived at the station, they had reset the jump timer until they could figure out how to jump with the station (Oceanus and Cronus FTL's were off line). They had a small contingent on the station (ten people) investigating, but their resources were devoted to triage. When we arrived, we were banged up pretty badly. I had a Raptor go back and get the fleet. Meanwhile I assumed command of the three ships (to the Majors relief) and began helping with the injured. I found out that they started with over five thousand people. Now there was only just under one thousand alive. I had to try to keep them alive.

The station was a different story. FTB was indeed very small. So small its gravitational field was practically zero. There were four surface defense sentry's that were still online. They guarded a massive retractable door, big enough for a Battlestar to fit through. Those were the only things on the surface. A Raptor team had entered the station through a smaller manual door on the larger one and were in the interior control station inside FTB.

Meanwhile, my fleet arrived and everyone breathed a sigh of relief to the sight of our largest Battlestar orbiting with us. Once they got here, all ships FTL's were online, so we jumped with the station. It was then, and only then did we breathe our first real sigh of relief.

A few more hours went by before the Raptor team figured out the door mechanism on the station. It stumped them because it was built before the first Cylon war. Once the door opened, the stations interior power grid must have been automatically triggered because the Raptor team reported back something astonishing. The interior of FTB was hallow and large enough to fit an entire armada inside. I, along with Slaton, and Tinker manned a Raptor and went to go look for our selfs.

"Virgil this is Craton Raptor zero one, request permission for takeoff," I spoke into the headset. I manned the pilots seat, while Tinker had the copilots seat. Slaton took the ECO station in the back. We all had on our blue duty uniforms because I couldn't fit my arm into a flight suit with my cast.

_"Craton Raptor zero one, you are cleared for takeoff,"_ said the control station from Virgils port landing bay.

I grabbed the throttle and pushed it up. We flew out the massive pod and into open space. Once out, we got our first real look at the entire fleet. So few had survived. We did a quick flyby of Cronus and assessed the damage. She had been evacuated because of the decompressions. We wanted to save her, but it would take so many resources we didn't have, not to mention manpower. The Venus Class looked very different from the Mars Class. My ship looked like a miniature Battlestar without the flight pods. Cronus and Oceanus looked like a passenger transport ship, but heavily armed and armored.

We turned towards the open doors on the surface of the celestial body. As we approached, we received Automatic Approach Telemetry from FTB. Tinker and I both looked at the approach vectors and decided to follow. We entered the pattern and flew through the open doors and into a tunnel. Yellow lights on all four sides of the tunnel began to strobe in the direction we were flying. We were in an Instrument Landing System (ILS). The tunnel was about the length of two Battlestars. When we exited the tunnel, we received the most impressive view I had ever seen.

The tunnel opened up into a cavern that was massive. Structural supports lined the walls of the gigantic moon sized cave like a spiders web. The weightless environment allowed for such engineering feats to be constructed, but I couldn't help but wonder at the cost. The entire zero degree horizon immediately shifted. Instead of us flying forward, the cave was set up so that once we were out of the tunnel, we were flying directly down relative to the landing pads that lay below us.

Landing pads lined a central hub elevated in the middle of the cave big enough for Raptors and Shuttles. The edge of the circular hub resulted in a drop off to the first level of landing pads.

That first level was amazing; lined in a circular parking fashion around the elevated central hub, were twelve dry docks. The dry docks were immediately recognized as Battlestar Docks. We knew that because resting in six of those docks were six of the Original Battlestars from the first Cylon War. They appeared to be berthed. Four massive clamps were locked onto either side of the flight pods. Their flight pods were retracted and several causeways and airlocks connected all sides of the Battlestars to the station. Most interesting was the engine sections. The Battlestars were anchored with their engines pointed toward the elevated central hub. A giant device (looked like a clamp and hoses) was connected to its engine pods from the central hub.

One level above the Battlestar level, and half way up the elevated central hub, were twenty four more dry docks. These docks were one ring out from the first level. On these docks were nine original Battleships (the prelude to the Venus Class). They were berthed the same way as the Battlestars but without the engine device connected to them. Also on that level were three Freighters.

Finally, on the third level were generic dry docks that were easily recognizable. The third level was against the canyon walls and level with the elevated central hub. It encompassed fifty docks, with twenty of them being used by old Colonial transports. Like I said, the scale of Finwat Terish Bason was massive. I wanted to land and get to a computer to answer my piling questions.

The ILS had lit up blue lights strobing in the direction of a landing pad directly in front of us around the elevated central hub. The hub was completely flat and just had a dozen or so small landing pads. We didn't see the Raptor from the team we sent. I adjusted our horizon by pulling up ninety degrees. The result made us level with the landing pads. We came down nice and soft on the designated pad. Once down, the pad began to retract into the hub (much like a Battlestar does in its flight pods). While retracting, I looked up through the bubble canopy and saw the entrance tunnel directly above us. Through the tunnel I could just make out Virgil flying by. Then the pressure doors closed above us and we waited.

We felt the lift stop and saw on our sensors the outside had been pressurized. Thats when another door retracted in front of us and there was a lighted circular hanger bay. We saw the other Raptor in the opposite airlock. One of the team members was waiting on us. We didn't have a deck gang to tow our Raptor out, so we left it in the airlock. We all stepped out and immediately smelled stale air. It reminded me of the Ragnar Anchorage. The Marine that was waiting on us informed me that the team was in the stations CIC. He lead us there.

We took an old elevator that was loud and rusted. The ride took nearly five minutes as we slowly descended the central hub tower. The elevator itself was an old grated service elevator. We could see through the mesh grate at the concrete wall moving on the other side. I was staring at the moving wall when everyone else gasped. I turned to the opening the doors made (they didn't shut all the way) and saw another massive display before me. Right then I knew why the Battlestars had devices connected to their engines. I saw another vast cave with a giant FTL in the middle. I could see eight independent spinners designed to charge the one FTL (which made since because building a moving object that large had design flaws). Further, and to answer my question how they managed to build a jumping planet, I saw six power cords the size of shuttles piped from the edge of the cave to the FTL. The six Battlestar FTL's were supplementing the stations FTL.

I was trying to look for more details when the walls to the elevator shaft returned. We eventually stopped descending and made our way through a labyrinth of dark corridors. When we entered the CIC, I thought I was just taking another turn in the maze, but instead I found I giant octagonal room. In the center of the room was a huge lighted information management table. Above that table was a retracting DRADIS console. The Raptor team was at various stations. Tinker, Slaton, and I walked to one of them and began pulling up files.

It turns out FTB Station was originally a military outpost built by the Capricans sixty years ago when the colonies were still independent governments and conflicted with each other, even had wars. The Capricans dug out some of the dock and these lower tunnels. Then the Cylon War broke out and construction stopped (they had to build Battlestars as quickly as possible). During the war, this place was a fraction of what it is now, and was used as a fall back supply station. After the war, the station was turned into a dooms day bunker. The resources of twelve worlds pitched in and built the giant dry dock and these lower tunnels. This place was designed to support one million people for fifty years. The best scientific minds came together and constructed the largest FTL ever.

Further, not only were ammunition's and supplies stockpiled, but instead of the old Battlestars being torn apart and reused for the newer Battlestars, they were secretly retired here, with the old Battleships, freighters, and a few transports. Each Battlestar was fully stocked, armed, fueled, and ready to launch with full Wings of original Mark II, IV and V Vipers. If we were going to mount a resistance and take back our homes, this is exactly what we needed. But when I was going over all the assets in the station, I realized one flaw to my thought of resistance, we didn't have the manpower to operate this armada.

We needed at least 2500 personal per Battlestar (minimum and that was pushing it. The older Battlestars are not networked. Each system must be operated locally). The older Battlships required at least 1000 personal to operate effectively. Then there were the Vipers. We had six full Viper Wings (not including Virgil). Each Wing had 160 Vipers. We needed about 1000 trained Viper Pilots. After all the math, I needed 15,960 trained personnel to operate just the Battlestars. We had maybe 10,000 people in our fleet. Two thousand were either too old or too young. Another few thousand were whiny civilians. I didn't know what to do.

-

That night I opened my dads letter I kept in my pocket in a plastic bag. It had tape holding it together.

_Dear Son,_

_I know you must be angry at me for what happened to your brother so long ago. Hopefully, in time, you will forgive me. I know you do not want to hear it, but your brother was working with the Soldier of the One. He helped to influence several Unions into taking action against the government. The day he didn't pick you up from school, he was getting illegal explosives for a group of Sagittaron radicals. He wanted to help them kill the Mayor that day when I took you to school._

_When we were almost hurt, he ran away. I didn't quit my job, I was being accused of helping him. I had to chose. Help one son or lose both of them. I decided to resign and stay quiet to keep you. There was nothing I could do to keep Daniel. _

_After your brother was executed, you pulled away from me and left the house as quickly as possible. You changed your last name and enlisted in the Fleet. I was so proud when I heard you were in the Step Up Program. You didn't know this, but I was there in the back of the room when you graduated with your commission. I was never so proud of you. Then I heard about your promotion to Lieutenant and your Pilot Instructor slot. I had friends send photos of you from each event. When I moved to Caprica to be near you, you didn't try to talk to me even though I worked so hard at it. It was then I knew you would never forgive me. I figured it was because you were too much like your old man._

_There is something else I never told you. We found Daniel in an escape pod when he was a little boy. I am sure Danny told you this. What he didn't tell you, is that you were in the same pod. You were an infant. Both of you were too young and traumatized to remember. Your mother and I started raising both of you as our own, not to lie to you, but because we couldn't see any advantage to knowing the truth. Your brother remembered being found. So we raised you as our own. I am sorry for not telling you the truth._

_Through your whole life, I have tried to instill a set of morals and fundamental beliefs that will hopefully help to shape you for the things to come. I do not know what is to come, I just feel a __reckoning for the sins we as a species have committed in the past against each other and our selfs is about happen. I feel the scope of the reckoning will be massive. In the reckoning, I always hoped you would have an important place saving our future. You are just, moral, good, funny, clean, nice, authoritative and above all, you instill respect from those around you. Son, you are a natural leader, don't run from it._

_This is my last letter to you my boy. I have a wife now, and some little kids running around the house (hers not mine). I have decided to take up my old commission in the Colonial Fleet as a Viper Pilot (chip off the old block). They are going to give me my old rank of Lt. Col. Hopefully, I might run into you one day. If not, you are my legacy. Goodbye my son. I love you._

_Your Father: Lt. Col. Jurgen Belzen, Colonial Fleet_

-

Engineering teams worked around the clock to bring the station all the way on line. Once they did, we docked our fleet inside the station. We ended up tearing apart Cronus to patch up the Oceanus, Virgil and Craton. I refused to let Virgil integrate with the stations FTL. I wouldn't even let her dock for the first couple of weeks.

When the President woke up, he went into an uproar. He didn't like I was making the decisions that would effect our legacy. He really didn't like how I was promoting fleet officers. And he despised how everyone called me Fleet Commander even though I was a Captain. He accused me of a Coup d'etat. To which I, in front of the newly promoted Commanders of the Oceanus, Metainra, our retrofitted Battleship the Athena, and Commander Tinker, knocked him on his ass. The five of us gave him an option: He could stay President and help start a new government, or he could be thrown in jail. Either way, I made sure he knew Military decisions rested with us, the Commanders.

After the President calmed down, he turned out to be an okay guy. He was just scared and depressed at the tragic loss of life. With just 10,000 alive, he readjusted the government. To his credit, he stepped down as President and instituted a governing council, much like the Quorum of Twelve, but this was the FTB Quorum of Thirteen. He made it Thirteen to Symbolize our lost brothers on the Pegasus and Galactica and its fleets (it was a metaphor for the mythical thirteenth tribe of man. I don't know too much about colonial religion). He was voted into the Thirteenth position which was now Chief Councilor.

The Commanders and I met with the Quorum several times to come up with a strategy. After weeks of meetings, we had a plan. It was laid out on paper and posted in the council chambers for us all to remember.

-

THE PLAN

THIS IS OUR HOME. THERE IS NO GOING BACK. NOT YET ANYWAY.

FOR SIX MONTHS WE WILL SEND TEAMS TO THE TWELVE WORLDS AND LOOK FOR SURVIVORS IN LOW RADIATION AREAS.

FOR THREE MONTHS WE WILL SEND TEAMS TO VARIOUS BLIND SPOTS THROUGH OUT THE SYSTEM AND LOOK FOR SURVIVORS.

FOR ONE MONTH WE WILL SEND OUT THE BATTLE CRUISER OCEANUS TO LOOK FOR THE BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

FOR ONE MONTH WE WILL SEND OUT THE BATTLESHIP ATHENA TO LOOK FOR THE BATTLESTAR PEGASUS.

FOR ONE YEAR WE WILL LAY LOW BEFORE WE BEGIN OUR RESISTANCE

WE WILL STAY HERE UNTIL WE HAVE ENOUGH NUMBERS TO LAUNCH AN ALLOUT ATTACK ON THE CYLONS. THIS IS OUR ULTIMATE GOAL. EVEN IF IT TAKES A HUNDRED YEARS, WE WILL STAY HERE AND RAISE OUR NUMBERS. THROUGH THE CENTURIES THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE, AND WE WILL MAKE SURE THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.

-

Commander Cody pressed stop on the recorder. He preferred the audio version of logs versus the pen and paper one. He got up from his deck on the Craton and walked into his cabin. He preferred the Craton to the station's sleeping quarters. They were more comfortable and felt more like home. He reached into the locker and grabbed a cleanly pressed blue uniform. He put it on and walked into the small bathroom connected to his cabin. While looking in the mirror, he put his new rank insignias on his collar. When he was finished adjusting them, he turned and left the room for FTB CIC.

It took over ten minutes to get to FTB CIC. When he walked in, the heavily staffed room stood at attention as a crewman yelled, "Admiral on deck!"

He walked up to Commander Mike Marks. Marks saluted Admiral Ryan Cody. Cody responded, "I relieve you Sir."

Marks replied, "I stand relieved." Then Ryan dropped his salute and then Marks did right after.

Admiral Cody began to look over the days reports. FTB CIC would be his for the next 26 hours. All the Commanders took turns manning it. While he was now an Admiral, he maintained his comroddery with his Commanders. He needed them, and they needed him. This was his life now. This was his fathers legacy.

-THE END-


	15. Epilogue

Epilogue

The crew of the Battle Cruiser Craton were all working on FTB Station. The Craton was deserted, aside from a skeleton crew. Her landing bays were empty of all Raptors and maintenance technicians. Resting in one of the landing bays were three Mark VIII Vipers. The cockpits of the three Vipers glowed a soft blue as they activated. Inside the cockpits, on the Heads Up Display, were red vertical scrolling symbols. On the DRADIS screen below the HUD were red zeros and ones interchanging in a variable pattern. On the left hand side of the cockpit, on the Systems Monitor, was a program running:

-

MN SYS PWR=NOT ABLE

THRST CTRL=INOP

DRADIS=LOCL ACC ONLY

CNP=ROLBACK VRS 34/5

FTL=INOP

COM=OFF

AUX PWR=OFF

CMD: AUX PWR ON

AUX PWR=ON

CMD: COM 1 ON

COM=ON

CMD: COM 1 FREQ: 349.4

COM=ON/XMIT

-

On a computer terminal, in another room close to the landing bay on the Craton, a computer screen flashed: RECEIVING TRANSMISSION. Then the same red characters began to scroll vertically on the computers screen. Momentarily, a program running in the back ground flashed a quick pop up: VIRUS DETECTED. Then the pop up was subsided. After a few moments the computer screen went back to normal.

-

**NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR:**

_Thank you everyone for taking the time to read my story. I first got the idea after watching the Miniseries DVD one rainy afternoon. I refused to believe that the populations of twelve worlds could be annihilated to a few fifty thousand. There had to be others. I wanted to try to write a plausible story to show that. While writing, I made several rules: I couldn't interfere with the TV Shows story line. I wanted this to be a standalone story (in my mind, this had to be something you could plug into a DVD player and watch without watching BSG). 10 chapters MAX! (which I broke). No more than fifty thousand words. Anything more than fifty thousand words is just too much to keep up with (these are short stories after all)._

_I actually wrote the first three chapters in third person. I did a rewrite and decided on first person to add a more 'Documentary' feel to it. While writing I listened to the BSG Soundtracks and watched various episodes of the show. I always wondered if I should post the song I was listening to when I wrote that particular paragraph. I wondered if that would help or hurt? I also did much investigating into BSG continuity. A few characters in here are secondary or major characters in the series. (Who was his dad? Do a BSG wiki search. . .)_

_One of my favorite shows is Lost. I like how they tie the characters past lives around one another without them knowing. I wanted to do that to my characters with RDM's BSG characters. That is why I began the flashbacks. Instead, the flashbacks began something interesting. They began to tell, not just the past story of the main character, but why he was doing his present actions. Also, I am an aviator in the USAF, so I used a lot of our own technical jargon we use from my airframe, and just rewrote it for this story. I hoped it added to the realism._

_I enjoyed reading your comments, and still do. Some of the concerns in the comments were interesting. I always feel the need to respond, but I resist in the hope that you re-read the story and make sure you didn't pass up your answer. _

_Also,a few alternate endings I am writing. They are to be added later._


	16. Alternate Ending

Battlestar Galactica Fan Fiction Story

BSG 41

I would like to say that everything after that was fine and dandy, and we all lived happily ever after.

-

_"And then what?" I asked my brother excited._

_"Well, after Gemenon Frontage Beach, we will hit up Virgo Space Park," said my brother. He was planning a future vacation for us. I was seven years old and very excited. I loved my big brother. We were going to be together always. He was my best friend. "Just you and me."_

_"Can we see Caprica City?" I asked. I was laying next to my brother in his big bed in his room. We had been up all night telling ghost stories and playing with our Action Figures. _

_"You bet sport."_

_"Get to bed you two!" yelled my father from the other room. I usually slept with my brother so me being in here was okay. My dad was just upset we were up so late._

_"We'll talk about it later. Night kid."_

_"Night Danny." I turned on my side and closed my eyes. Then asked another question. "Are we going to really do this?"_

_"You bet kid. Things always go as planned."_

-

Unfortunately, things seldom go as planned.

As it turns out, the Oceanus, Cronus, and Metanira were all part of the Armistice Station Delegation, along with the Battlestar Mercury. They were the escort for the Colonial Armistice Officer. Due to the outlining regulations in the Cimtar Peace Accord, they could not ferry the Officer all the way to the Station, but had to remain fifty thousand kilometers from it during the Annual Peace Talks. After we racked all the timestamps from our reports and experiences, we concluded that those vessels were the first to engage the Cylons.

The three ships also offered another insight into the Cylon attacks. Each ship had a human model Cylon on board. We know now that the Cylon's must have infiltrated all our warships with an operative. Through our experiences thus far, in comparison with the Oceanus, Cronus, and Metanira, that operatives job was to terminate the Command Officers during the attack. Their Long Range DRADIS logs showed Armistice Station being destroyed by a Basestar. While that was happening, they were being attacked by a Raider Wing.

Fortunately, things seldom go as planned. That was the Cylons first engagement of Colonial warships in 40 years. They just so happened to attack four warships that were prepped and waiting for a fight in case the talks ended badly (which they did apparently. Sadly we will never know what went on during the talks on the station). They successfully infiltrated the computer systems of the four ships through the Command Navigation Program. The heavily networked Battlestar Mercury was quickly destroyed. The two old Venus Class Battle Cruisers and the fairly new Destroyer were heavily damaged. We don't know why, but the Cylons didn't shut the three ships down through the back door. Slaton and I think its because after the Battlestar was nuked, the resulting DRADIS static and residual radiation blinded the Raiders, but we will never know.

After the three ships jumped out, the human Cylons activated and killed the Command Officers. We know had five known Cylon models. The highest ranking officer of the three ships is a Major (a Doctor) and he has been trying to delegate his time between surgery and commanding. They picked up the full Case Orange transmissions immediately after it was broad casted and began investigating off that. They had no knowledge of Finwat Terish Bason before hand. It just so happens, the first part of the Case Orange transmission contained a set of coded jump coordinates for Orange Bunker. When they arrived, they picked up the Secretary of Interior (now the President) and his staff before the Cylons arrived. With the help of the new President they found Jaygo's Comet and the Twin Moons.

While they were at the Twin Moons getting the second set of coordinates, the Cylons jumped in and they began the first battle right before us (which explains why eight additional Basestars jumped in during our battle). They managed to get the coordinates, but not before their ships were crippled and hundreds died. The President was injured and fell into a coma. The Cronus was barely holding together. A few of her engine pods were ejected and most of her hull was breached, she would have to be scrapped. Oceanus was banged to high heavens but she was reparable. Metanira was the best ship out of all of them. Her speed and agility kept her in good condition.

When they arrived at the station, they had reset the jump timer until they could figure out how to jump with the station (Oceanus and Cronus FTL's were off line). They had a small contingent on the station (ten people) investigating, but their resources were devoted to triage. When we arrived, we were banged up pretty badly. I had a Raptor go back and get the fleet. Meanwhile I assumed command of the three ships (to the Majors relief) and began helping with the injured. I found out that they started with over five thousand people. Now there was only just under one thousand alive. I had to try to keep them alive.

The station was a different story. FTB was indeed very small. So small its gravitational field was practically zero. There were four surface defense sentry's that were still online. They guarded a massive retractable door, big enough for a Battlestar to fit through. Those were the only things on the surface. A Raptor team had entered the station through a smaller manual door on the larger one and were in the interior control station inside FTB.

Meanwhile, my fleet arrived and everyone breathed a sigh of relief to the sight of our largest Battlestar orbiting with us. Once they got here, all ships FTL's were online, so we jumped with the station. It was then, and only then did we breathe our first real sigh of relief.

A few more hours went by before the Raptor team figured out the door mechanism on the station. It stumped them because it was built before the first Cylon war. Once the door opened, the stations interior power grid must have been automatically triggered because the Raptor team reported back something astonishing. The interior of FTB was hallow and large enough to fit an entire armada inside. I, along with Slaton, and Tinker manned a Raptor and went to go look for our selfs.

"Virgil this is Craton Raptor zero one, request permission for takeoff," I spoke into the headset. I manned the pilots seat, while Tinker had the copilots seat. Slaton took the ECO station in the back. We all had on our blue duty uniforms because I couldn't fit my arm into a flight suit with my cast.

_"Craton Raptor zero one, you are cleared for takeoff,"_ said the control station from Virgils port landing bay.

I grabbed the throttle and pushed it up. We flew out the massive pod and into open space. Once out, we got our first real look at the entire fleet. So few had survived. We did a quick flyby of Cronus and assessed the damage. She had been evacuated because of the decompressions. We wanted to save her, but it would take so many resources we didn't have, not to mention manpower. The Venus Class looked very different from the Mars Class. My ship looked like a miniature Battlestar without the flight pods. Cronus and Oceanus looked like a passenger transport ship, but heavily armed and armored.

We turned towards the open doors on the surface of the celestial body. As we approached, we received Automatic Approach Telemetry from FTB. Tinker and I both looked at the approach vectors and decided to follow. We entered the pattern and flew through the open doors and into a tunnel. Yellow lights on all four sides of the tunnel began to strobe in the direction we were flying. We were in an Instrument Landing System (ILS). The tunnel was about the length of two Battlestars. When we exited the tunnel, we received the most impressive view I had ever seen.

The tunnel opened up into a cavern that was massive. Structural supports lined the walls of the gigantic moon sized cave like a spiders web. The weightless environment allowed for such engineering feats to be constructed, but I couldn't help but wonder at the cost. The entire zero degree horizon immediately shifted. Instead of us flying forward, the cave was set up so that once we were out of the tunnel, we were flying directly down relative to the landing pads that lay below us.

Landing pads lined a central hub elevated in the middle of the cave big enough for Raptors and Shuttles. The edge of the circular hub resulted in a drop off to the first level of landing pads.

That first level was amazing; lined in a circular parking fashion around the elevated central hub, were twelve dry docks. The dry docks were immediately recognized as Battlestar Docks. We knew that because resting in six of those docks were six of the Original Battlestars from the first Cylon War. They appeared to be berthed. Four massive clamps were locked onto either side of the flight pods. Their flight pods were retracted and several causeways and airlocks connected all sides of the Battlestars to the station. Most interesting was the engine sections. The Battlestars were anchored with their engines pointed toward the elevated central hub. A giant device (looked like a clamp and hoses) was connected to its engine pods from the central hub.

One level above the Battlestar level, and half way up the elevated central hub, were twenty four more dry docks. These docks were one ring out from the first level. On these docks were nine original Battleships (the prelude to the Venus Class). They were berthed the same way as the Battlestars but without the engine device connected to them. Also on that level were three Freighters.

Finally, on the third level were generic dry docks that were easily recognizable. The third level was against the canyon walls and level with the elevated central hub. It encompassed fifty docks, with twenty of them being used by old Colonial transports. Like I said, the scale of Finwat Terish Bason was massive. I wanted to land and get to a computer to answer my piling questions.

The ILS had lit up blue lights strobing in the direction of a landing pad directly in front of us around the elevated central hub. The hub was completely flat and just had a dozen or so small landing pads. We didn't see the Raptor from the team we sent. I adjusted our horizon by pulling up ninety degrees. The result made us level with the landing pads. We came down nice and soft on the designated pad. Once down, the pad began to retract into the hub (much like a Battlestar does in its flight pods). While retracting, I looked up through the bubble canopy and saw the entrance tunnel directly above us. Through the tunnel I could just make out Virgil flying by. Then the pressure doors closed above us and we waited.

We felt the lift stop and saw on our sensors the outside had been pressurized. Thats when another door retracted in front of us and there was a lighted circular hanger bay. We saw the other Raptor in the opposite airlock. One of the team members was waiting on us. We didn't have a deck gang to tow our Raptor out, so we left it in the airlock. We all stepped out and immediately smelled stale air. It reminded me of the Ragnar Anchorage. The Marine that was waiting on us informed me that the team was in the stations CIC. He lead us there.

We took an old elevator that was loud and rusted. The ride took nearly five minutes as we slowly descended the central hub tower. The elevator itself was an old grated service elevator. We could see through the mesh grate at the concrete wall moving on the other side. I was staring at the moving wall when everyone else gasped. I turned to the opening the doors made (they didn't shut all the way) and saw another massive display before me. Right then I knew why the Battlestars had devices connected to their engines. I saw another vast cave with a giant FTL in the middle. I could see eight independent spinners designed to charge the one FTL (which made since because building a moving object that large had design flaws). Further, and to answer my question how they managed to build a jumping planet, I saw six power cords the size of shuttles piped from the edge of the cave to the FTL. The six Battlestar FTL's were supplementing the stations FTL.

I was trying to look for more details when the walls to the elevator shaft returned. We eventually stopped descending and made our way through a labyrinth of dark corridors. When we entered the CIC, I thought I was just taking another turn in the maze, but instead I found I giant octagonal room. In the center of the room was a huge lighted information management table. Above that table was a retracting DRADIS console. The Raptor team was at various stations. Tinker, Slaton, and I walked to one of them and began pulling up files.

It turns out FTB Station was originally a military outpost built by the Capricans sixty years ago when the colonies were still independent governments and conflicted with each other, even had wars. The Capricans dug out some of the dock and these lower tunnels. Then the Cylon War broke out and construction stopped (they had to build Battlestars as quickly as possible). During the war, this place was a fraction of what it is now, and was used as a fall back supply station. After the war, the station was turned into a dooms day bunker. The resources of twelve worlds pitched in and built the giant dry dock and these lower tunnels. This place was designed to support one million people for fifty years. The best scientific minds came together and constructed the largest FTL ever.

Further, not only were ammunitions and supplies stockpiled, but instead of the old Battlestars being torn apart and reused for the newer Battlestars, they were secretly retired here, with the old Battleships, freighters, and a few transports. Each Battlestar was fully stocked, armed, fueled, and ready to launch with full Wings of original Mark II, IV and V Vipers. If we were going to mount a resistance and take back our homes, this is exactly what we needed. But when I was going over all the assets in the station, I realized one flaw to my thought of resistance, we didn't have the manpower to operate this armada.

We needed at least 2500 personal per Battlestar (minimum and that was pushing it. The older Battlestars are not networked. Each system must be operated locally). The older Battlships required at least 1000 personal to operate effectively. Then there were the Vipers. We had six full Viper Wings (not including Virgil). Each Wing had 160 Vipers. We needed about 1000 trained Viper Pilots. After all the math, I needed 15,960 trained personnel to operate just the Battlestars. We had maybe 10,000 people in our fleet. Two thousand were either too old or too young. Another few thousand were whiny civilians. I didn't know what to do.

-

That night I opened my dads letter I kept in my pocket in a plastic bag. It had tape holding it together.

_Dear Son,_

_I know you must be angry at me for what happened to your brother so long ago. Hopefully, in time, you will forgive me. I know you do not want to hear it, but your brother was working with the Soldier of the One. He helped to influence several Unions into taking action against the government. The day he didn't pick you up from school, he was getting illegal explosives for a group of Sagittaron radicals. He wanted to help them kill the Mayor that day when I took you to school._

_When we were almost hurt, he ran away. I didn't quit my job, I was being accused of helping him. I had to chose. Help one son or lose both of them. I decided to resign and stay quiet to keep you. There was nothing I could do to keep Daniel. _

_After your brother was executed, you pulled away from me and left the house as quickly as possible. You changed your last name and enlisted in the Fleet. I was so proud when I heard you were in the Step Up Program. You didn't know this, but I was there in the back of the room when you graduated with your commission. I was never so proud of you. Then I heard about your promotion to Lieutenant and your Pilot Instructor slot. I had friends send photos of you from each event. When I moved to Caprica to be near you, you didn't try to talk to me even though I worked so hard at it. It was then I knew you would never forgive me. I figured it was because you were too much like your old man._

_There is something else I never told you. We found Daniel in an escape pod when he was a little boy. I am sure Danny told you this. What he didn't tell you, is that you were in the same pod. You were an infant. Both of you were too young and traumatized to remember. Your mother and I started raising both of you as our own, not to lie to you, but because we couldn't see any advantage to knowing the truth. Your brother remembered being found. So we raised you as our own. I am sorry for not telling you the truth._

_Through your whole life, I have tried to instill a set of morals and fundamental beliefs that will hopefully help to shape you for the things to come. I do not know what is to come, I just feel a __reckoning for the sins we as a species have committed in the past against each other and our selfs is about happen. I feel the scope of the reckoning will be massive. In the reckoning, I always hoped you would have an important place saving our future. You are just, moral, good, funny, clean, nice, authoritative and above all, you instill respect from those around you. Son, you are a natural leader, don't run from it._

_This is my last letter to you my boy. I have a wife now, and some little kids running around the house (hers not mine). I have decided to take up my old commission in the Colonial Fleet as a Viper Pilot (chip off the old block). They are going to give me my old rank of Lt. Col. Hopefully, I might run into you one day. If not, you are my legacy. Goodbye my son. I love you._

_Your Father: Lt. Col. Jurgen Belzen, Colonial Fleet_

-

Engineering teams worked around the clock to bring the station all the way on line. Once they did, we docked our fleet inside the station. We ended up tearing apart Cronus to patch up the Oceanus, Virgil and Craton. I refused to let Virgil integrate with the stations FTL. I wouldn't even let her dock for the first couple of weeks.

When the President woke up, he went into an uproar. He didn't like I was making the decisions that would effect our legacy. He really didn't like how I was promoting fleet officers. And he despised how everyone called me Fleet Commander even though I was a Captain. He accused me of a Coup d'etat. To which I, in front of the newly promoted Commanders of the Oceanus, Metainra, our retrofitted Battleship the Athena, and Commander Tinker, knocked him on his ass. The five of us gave him an option: He could stay President and help start a new government, or he could be thrown in jail. Either way, I made sure he knew Military decisions rested with us, the Commanders.

After the President calmed down, he turned out to be an okay guy. He was just scared and depressed at the tragic loss of life. With just 10,000 alive, he readjusted the government. To his credit, he stepped down as President and instituted a governing council, much like the Quorum of Twelve, but this was the FTB Quorum of Thirteen. He made it Thirteen to Symbolize our lost brothers on the Pegasus and Galactica and its fleets (it was a metaphor for the mythical thirteenth tribe of man. I don't know too much about colonial religion). He was voted into the Thirteenth position which was now Chief Councilor.

The Commanders and I met with the Quorum several times to come up with a strategy. After weeks of meetings, we had a plan. It was laid out on paper and posted in the council chambers for us all to remember.

-

THE PLAN

THIS IS OUR HOME. THERE IS NO GOING BACK. NOT YET ANYWAY.

FOR SIX MONTHS WE WILL SEND TEAMS TO THE TWELVE WORLDS AND LOOK FOR SURVIVORS IN LOW RADIATION AREAS.

FOR THREE MONTHS WE WILL SEND TEAMS TO VARIOUS BLIND SPOTS THROUGH OUT THE SYSTEM AND LOOK FOR SURVIVORS.

FOR ONE MONTH WE WILL SEND OUT THE BATTLE CRUISER OCEANUS TO LOOK FOR THE BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

FOR ONE MONTH WE WILL SEND OUT THE BATTLESHIP ATHENA TO LOOK FOR THE BATTLESTAR PEGASUS.

FOR ONE YEAR WE WILL LAY LOW BEFORE WE BEGIN OUR RESISTANCE

WE WILL STAY HERE UNTIL WE HAVE ENOUGH NUMBERS TO LAUNCH AN ALLOUT ATTACK ON THE CYLONS. THIS IS OUR ULTIMATE GOAL. EVEN IF IT TAKES A HUNDRED YEARS, WE WILL STAY HERE AND RAISE OUR NUMBERS. THROUGH THE CENTURIES THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE, AND WE WILL MAKE SURE THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.

-

The man stopped the playback on the computer. He was tired. Furthermore, he was scared. No ship had ventured this deeply into enemy space. For that matter, no ship had been able to make their way this far into the heart of the enemy's section of the galaxy. From what was known, they were close to the enemy home world. They were on alert, waiting, and searching. For a few hundred years, they had received the same transmission. This was the second mission sent to search for it. The first one was lost ten years ago.

On August 15th, 1977, a United States communications satellite picked up a very faint transmission coming from the direction of a dim yellow star, far on the other side of the galaxy. The bulk of this transmission was lost, but a few small pieces of information were decoded, and another few pieces were picked up by an Ohio research school. Due to the Earth only being able to look at this section of sky for half the year, the US government launched three satellites in Lagrangian Positions Three, Four, and Five. This provided a full 24/7/365 monitor of that particular section of space.

Exactly 392 days later, the full transmission was repeated. Every year after that, up to the year 2390, the transmission was repeated. Why it stopped after 2390 was not known. The transmission was heavily encrypted and remained elusive to US encryption specialists for decades. When the specialist failed, the transmission was filed away, buried in some dark file in some section of a building that didn't exist.

In 2051 man finally landed on Mars. 2095 saw the first Martian Colony. By 2341 mankind had mastered the Solar System, Mars was well into the middle stage of terriforming and, the moons of Saturn and Jupiter housed cities with populations of hundreds of thousands. The Solar System was mans, just as the Earth had been once the oceans were conquered. In 2409, mankind began to leave the system in generation ships. The Solar System was peaceful and man devoted its time to research and science. Science and Research ships littered the System.

2420 marked the arrival of their enemy. They appeared in three vast, gigantic vessels like chrome shaped stars. Government officials sent Diplomatic Envoys to the Chrome Stars to make First Contact. The envoy, a collection of a dozen of the most scientifically advanced ships, were destroyed. Religious scholars announced the arrival of Armageddon. Earth, a world rapped in peace, with no reason for planetary defensive weapons, was attacked.

The first wave saw Earths largest cities destroyed in brilliant, non-nuclear, flashes of light. The second wave consisted of an air raid. The Chrome Stars launched entire wings of space superiority fighters that bombarded continental defenses. The three most powerful Air Forces left on the planet put up a costly fight. The United States Air Force, European Union Air Force, and Asian Union Air Force lost eighty percent of their assets. Then the third wave came: the ground troops. They looked like eight foot chrome men. They had metal fibers like muscles. They had two red eyes. They had guns for hands. They moved fluidly like a man. They were quiet when they walked.

They began to round people into camps and take Earth for themselves. For two months Earth was theirs. The Clergy refused to authorize nuclear attack. They proclaimed "God will save us." Then, an answer from the heavens. A fleet of ships arrived. They were different from the Chrome Stars but equally large. In a battle fit for books, they destroyed the enemy Chrome Stars and their ground troops. Another First Contact resulted in peace. But contained a warning.

The new arrivals called themselves the Protectors. The Protectors were reluctant to talk to the people of Earth. They appeared to be human, but revealed to man, that they were biomechanical. Underneath their imitation skin was the most advanced sentient robot ever. Earths contact with the Protectors came with reluctance due to the Occupation, but in the end everything worked out.

The Protectors told of a story of a race of Cybernetic Life-forms that were created hundreds of thousands of years ago. They told an amazing tale how eventually they split from that race and had evolved on their own ever since. Out of fear that the enemy would find Earth, the Protectors stayed close enough to keep an eye on us. The fear was justified.

With diplomatic relations with the Protectors well underway, Earth began reconstruction of its cities. Also, with help from the Protectors, Earth began fortifying and building defenses for their planet. The Protectors assured the people of Earth that the enemy would return, and they couldn't protect us for ever. The only technological advancement the Protectors gave man was an engine called a Faster Than Light Drive. The engine allowed man to finally reach stars in reasonable time.

It took eighty years, but Earth had built what they needed and not only fortified Earth, but their stations around the system. The year 2505 marked the beginning of the war and the test of Earths defenses. For nearly thirty years, Earth lived under constant hit and run attacks from Chrome Stars. It took a direct attack on the Vatican, but in 2531, the Clergy finally authorized all resources from the system into constructing Space Warships.

Ever since the first Warship was commissioned in 2555, man began to defend Solar System borders and push into the galaxy in order to find this enemy. Through research and help from the Protectors, the location of the enemy's home system was found. A fleet of Earths most powerful ships set out to find it, but instead encountered the enemy.

It was 2691, and now the USS Dallas was the second ship to get as far as they had into enemy space. They were going off of a several hundred year old transmission that was decrypted with the help from the Protectors. They were looking for a System. They were looking for answers.

He pressed play again on the computer, "This will be my final log as Fleet Commander of the Colonial Military. This morning, the Quorum informed me of my new position as Admiral. If only my father could see me now. We received reports of a civilian fleet that had been stripped of their supplies and jump drives by the Battlestar Pegasus. Presently we are under operations to recover and bring them back here. Furthermore, I have dispatched the Athena along the Pegasus' last known trajectory (providing they jumped in the direction of their momentum). Hopefully we will find out something soon. Admiral Ryan Cody, end log."

-THE END-


End file.
